


Bloodied and Broken

by lunar_fox22



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Eventual Romance, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff, Mentions of Natasha Romanoff - Freeform, Mentions of Phil Coulson - Freeform, Post-Thor (2011), Pre-Avengers (2012), Psychological Torture, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Suicidal Thoughts, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-08 05:44:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21471007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunar_fox22/pseuds/lunar_fox22
Summary: Loki has fallen from the Bifrost, a disgraced prince. He meets Angela Lawrence, a SHIELD agent who helps him, but can he let go of his scorn? Or will he betray the only person who is on his side?---Tags will be updated as needed.
Relationships: Loki/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I've wrote this fic. I started this right after the first Avengers and just have been so busy with life that I never really got around to finishing it. I plan on finishing this and hopefully adding on to it, but I'll start by posting this chapter on here to see if anyone likes it and if it's even worth the effort. So if you guys could let me know if this is any good or if you have any thoughts about it, that would be great.

He was a king; or a should be king. King of Asgard, King of the Nine Realms. And now he was falling.  
The everlasting void seemed to consume him whole. Power swarmed around him. Loki could feel himself getting stronger, yet his mind and his will was getting weaker.  
He was betrayed. Betrayed by his own father, brother, and his so-called friends. And now he understood why. Why he would never really be king, why he was never loved equally to his brother, Thor, and why he was so different from the other Aesir. It was all for one simple reason: he was a Frost Giant.  
He was a monster. The one mothers told their children to fear. And because of that he was never really a part of that society. His ‘father’, Odin, had used him. He was nothing more than a tool waiting to be used. No matter how hard Loki tried, it was never enough for Odin. Loki had almost destroyed Jotunheim. And he did it naught for himself; he did it for all of them. He could have done it, if Thor would have stayed banished.  
Thor, it seemed, had changed drastically on his three days on Midgard. How? Loki would never know. The Midgardians were simple, dull creatures. The ones Thor hung about were overly so. It made no sense whatsoever.  
Well, none of this mattered now. Not while he was falling to Norns know where. If he was even falling to anywhere at all. Maybe this was some deep abyss never to end at all. He didn’t even know how long he had been falling.  
One thing he did know: if this void did end, he would be king once more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki falls to Earth, and meets Angela Lawrence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally back! The holidays were crazy and my family has a ton of birthdays in December and January. I was finally able to sit down and write this out. THis chapter is much longer than the first. I hope you guys enjoy.

Angela Lawrence was a busy woman. Director Nick Fury saw to that. Lately she’s had her hands full overseeing the cleanup/rebuilding of the small-town Puente Antiguo, New Mexico and keeping an eye on Dr. Jane Foster, who was now stationed in Albuquerque. Most of her time was spent going between the two towns and managing things.

She didn’t mind it too much. Angela was curious by nature, and the fact that mythical legends had landed her on Earth excited her. When she wasn’t working, she would return to the little house she had rented between the two towns and read up on Norse mythology to learn as much as she could. That was one reason why Director Fury had assigned her to this. She was very thorough in every task he had given her. Whether it was a hit job, espionage, or just leading a team, she always made sure she did it perfectly. Well it’s that and the fact that Agent Coulson had his hands full with the defrosting of Captain America. 

The sun was almost set leaving the sky a stunning mix of blues, purples, and oranges. Angela watched the sky as people left the building where they were temporarily housing the residents of Puente Antiguo who had lost everything in the robot attack. She did this every day, she was often the first one to arrive during the work day, and she was the last one to leave, just to make sure everyone had what they needed.

When every SHIELD agent had left Angela said her goodbyes to the residents, got into her black SUV, and left to go to her house. It wasn’t her only house, but she had rented it to make this mission easier. This mission could take months, so she currently lived in a small, 2-bedroom house on the outskirts of Albuquerque, and it was a good 30-minute drive there and back from Puente. But it allowed her to easily go from Dr. Foster to here.

She was halfway home, listening to some pop station, when she noticed a bright light falling from the sky. Quickly, she pulled the car to the side of the road and watched as the light landed not far from where she was. Was it a meteor? A piece of satellite? She put her hazards and hopped out of the car to find out.

After a short hike towards what was now a small crater in the ground, she stopped dead in her tracks. In the crater wasn’t a meteor or a piece of satellite like she figured there would be. There was a man. There was a whole ass man, lying unconscious or possibly dead in the crater. 

Shaking her head as if it would really help her see clearly, she stared at the man for a brief moment before lowering herself into the crater to go check on him. 

As she walked towards him, her thoughts frantically raced through her mind. He couldn’t be human; he would have burned up in the atmosphere. Could he be an alien? What were the chances that an alien would land here three months after Thor landed here? Could he be a super soldier? Or something like The Hulk? Whatever he was, she would have to find out later. Right now, she needed to see if he was alive.

Now that she was close, she could get a good look at the man. He was pale, with long raven hair. He was lying mostly on his back, one arm was sprawled out under him, and the other bent to his side. She could tell he was tall by how long he was. And he seemed kind of thin, like he hasn’t eaten in a while. She could already see scrapes along his face from what she assumed was when he landed and skidded across the earth.

She lowered herself close to his body, she reached out to check his pulse. Before she even reached him, he let out a low groan. That answered that question. So, the man was alive. She continued to reach for his neck and find his pulse. It was beating faintly, but she could feel it slowly getting stronger the longer she checked.

“I think you’ll survive,” she whispered to the man.

She pulled her hand away, squared her shoulders, and took a deep breath. Right. Now to see where else he was injured.

He wore some weird armor-like outfit made of gold metal and green and black leather. It was hard to tell if he was bleeding or not. Her hands slide down to his chest and to his side, checking for any reactions. The moment her hands came in contact to where his ribs would be green eyes shot open and he groaned in pure agony.

She ripped her now bloody hands away, “Sorry!” She really hadn’t meant to cause him that much pain. 

Green eyes flashed and looked at her, “Stay away!” he growled out. 

She heard an accent, so he wasn’t from here.

She held her hands up in a surrendering gesture, “I’m just trying to help you.”

He stood up abruptly, making Angela scoot back quickly. His vision swarmed and dizziness hit him like Mjolnir hitting his chest. He stumbled a bit and held his aching head. By the Norns, how far did he fall?!

Angela stood up slowly trying not to move too quickly. When he began to stumble again, she went to his side to steady him only to have her hands slapped away.

“I said, ‘stay away’ or can you not hear?!” he hissed at her. His side was in excruciating pain and her holding it did not help.

“And I told you I was trying to help,” she replied calmly and returned to his side. When he hissed in pain she let go and went to the other side. When he didn’t do anything, she steadied him.

Loki’s vision filled up with black dots, but he kept his gaze on her. From the looks of it, she looked mortal. Perhaps Midgardian, but he wasn’t sure. “And what can you do?” He sneered at her. He doubted she could truly help him; most mortals were incompetent.

Angela paused briefly. What could she do? She couldn’t take him to the hospital, that’s for sure. He was an alien. He looked human, but for all she knew he could have two hearts. And the public wouldn’t respond very well to an alien. Especially after what happened after Puente. She thought about taking him to SHIELD, but then thought better of it. They would interrogate the guy instead of allowing him to heal. They would probably study him like a science experiment. At the moment they were on high alert after Thor and his brother’s little spat and whoever this was didn’t deserve to be treated like that. She could take him home and help him. Angela was experienced with injuries, having sustained a lot over her lifetime and had to fix many other people’s injuries. She had medical supplies there as well.

“I can heal you,” she replied.

He pushed Angela off with a considerable amount of strength for a heavily injured person. He stalked away a few feet, albeit with a limp. He looked back at her skeptically, “Why?”

Angela blinked in surprise. Why? Why was she helping this man? Not even a man, this alien. Logically, she should take him to SHIELD. Aliens did just destroy an entire town. But as she looked at him, standing there holding his side in pain, she couldn’t do it. She knew what they would do. So why? “Because I can help you,” she answered.

He scoffed, then clutched his side in pain. “There’s always a reason,” he said before swaying once again.

Angela quickly was by his side again and placed one of his long arms around her shoulder. “Alright, big guy. We’re going to my house.”

It wasn’t difficult to keep his tall frame up, until they got to the part where she had to pull him up and out of the ditch. For a thin guy, he was heavier than she expected. However, the further they walked, the more he leaned on her and more pain shot throughout his body.

She flicked her eyes up to look at him and say the pain etched in his face. “Hold on,” she whispered, “We’re almost to my car.”

The moment they reached her black SVU, she leaned him against the side of the car. She quickly opened up the back door to let him in. She turned back to him and saw him leaning against the door with his eyes closed, seemingly taking a breather. She gently touched his arm to get his attention. She guided him to crawl into the backseat of the car.

Loki crawled in and let his head rest against the seat. He heard the door next to him slam, and then a few seconds later another door open and slam shut. He could feel his consciousness slowly slipping away from him. His eye lids were getting heavy and the black dots were getting bigger and bigger. He could vaguely hear the woman speaking to him, but he couldn’t make out the words. His eyes finally closed and he was out.

Angela looked in the back to see him out. It wasn’t that surprising, seeing how much blood he had lost and how injured he was.

As she pulled off, her mind went back to the question the man- well alien had asked her. Why? Why did she do this? She peeked in the backseat at him, and sighed. He needed help. And it seemed like he didn’t get much kindness in his life judging by his response to her. This had to be the most reckless thing she has done so far. She had an unknown alien in the back of her car. He was weak, but he had enough power to push her. Who knew how powerful he truly was? Who knew how dangerous he was?

It didn’t matter now. At the moment he was hurt and needed help. He would probably die if she didn’t help him out.

She sighed. She had a busy day, and she was going to have a busy night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback appriciated.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, guys. I just want to explain the 'Original Female Character of Color' tag. Angela is biracial. I try to make it clear she is a character of color in this chapter, but we'll really get into it next chapter.  
Did you guys see Loki in the new trailer? Let me tell y'all, I freaked out.  
Thank you guys for reading this and leaving kudos. I appreciate it.  
Without further ado, the next chapter

When Loki woke up, the sun was blaring through the blinds filling the room he was in with bright light. He quickly squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block it out.

There was something soft under him, much softer than the seating he was laying on last night. Maybe the woman had indeed helped him to her home. If that was the case, she was strong as that would require carrying him.

Reluctantly he opened his eyes again. The light poured in his vision and he groaned. His head was pounding, and every inch of his body hurt. He tried to move to get up, but every part of him screamed to stop. Who was he to deny that? The only option was to lay here and not move a muscle. He did, however, take this time to look at his surroundings.

It didn’t take long to figure out the woman had put him in a bedroom. Was it hers? Nonetheless, it was a soft cream color, and only big enough to fit a bed and dresser. The bed he was laying on had a light blue blanket, and the dresser was made of a light wood. There was a window close to the bed. The cream door across the room from where he was laying, was cracked open.

Loki could hear birds chirping from outside, and he could hear what he assumed was the woman from last night walking towards the room.

He slowly sat up, trying his hardest to ignore the pain that shot through him as he did so. Shifting, he sat his back against the pillows and headboard. He watched as she poked her head in, and then stopped as their eyes met. She stepped into the room and examined him with her dark brown eyes.

Loki took this time to also examine the woman. She had warm, bronze skin. Curly, black hair that was pulled up into a bun, which allowed him to get a good look at her face. She had dark brown eyes, and a pair of full, pink lips. He was right in his assessment earlier, she was strong. He could clearly see her muscles as she folded her arms over her chest. She had a very straight posture, that reminded him much of the Einherjar at the palace. Finally, he looked at her body, and noticed she had nice curves. She was attractive, he concluded. Had this been a different time, he would have seduced her and went back to Asgard afterwards. But now he had a mission, and he could not be distracted.

“So, you’re finally awake,” her voice was soft. “You were out like a light last night. You didn’t even move.”

Small talk would get them nowhere, so he cut to the chase. He needed to know where in the Hel he had landed, “Where am I?”

For a moment, she didn’t reply. She instead came to sit next to him on the bed. The bed sunk as she added her weight and came face to face with him. Loki almost backed away but was stopped by the look in her eyes. He knew he was being evaluated, he had seen this look before. From his father, from his peers, by Thor. She was searching to see if he was worthy of something.

It wasn’t even a moment later she sat back a bit, satisfied with whatever she saw, and answered him. “You’re at my house. On Earth.”

He was right, she was Midgardian. So, he had landed on Midgard. Even he could appreciate the irony. He landed on the same place his brother – no, his not brother – loved so much. The place where Thor was banished to. The place where Thor’s precious Jane was. He did promise that he would visit her, didn’t he? This made fulfilling that promise easier.

Angela watched him for another, and saw the glint pass his eyes . Just as Loki knew what she was doing earlier, she realized the look in his eyes. Earlier she had seen the hurt pass his eyes too. And she knew all too well that something had happened to the man, alien, whatever he was. She could tell he was hurt outside of the physical sense. The look reminded her of herself not too long ago. Hurt, angry, and ready to do whatever to prove herself.

Angela chewed her lip in thought. Maybe, just maybe she could help him. She was a firm believer in paying it forward. Director Fury had helped her out when she needed it most, and now was her time to help someone else.

Her eyes slid over to him once more. He seemed zoned out. “I’ll be right back,” she told him.

His head snapped up to watch her leave the room. He looked down and noticed that he wasn’t in his armor but his under clothes. His shirt was drenched in blood, but he didn’t feel dirty. Had she cleaned him?

She returned with a white box and sat next to him again, “I’m going to need to take off your shirt and change your bandages.”

The white box opened, and he could see what looked to be medical supplies. She went to reach for him, and he smacked her hands away. He could remove his shirt this time by himself. She had already taken liberties with his person while he had slept.

Slowly, she pulled her hands back, waiting for him to finish. If he wanted to do it himself, he could as far as she was concerned. Angela could see the pain in his face, but it wasn’t her fault he was stubborn. In the meantime, she began getting out the bandages.

He finished undressing and examined the bandages. There were layers upon layers of them.

Angela looked back up to him to see him looking at her work. “I did the best I could. I tried to give you stitches, but your skin broke the needle. So, I had to use liquid stitches. I wrapped you up to make sure everything stayed in place.”

This time when she went to reach for him, he allowed it. She began to unwrap him, and watched him closely to make sure she wasn’t hurting him too badly. She noticed that the scrapes on his face had healed. _‘That was quick,’_ she thought.

The last of the bandages came undone and she examined his upper torso. It was a collage of purples, blues, yellows, and his actual pale skin color. The deep gash on his side had healed some but was still there. The liquid stitches seemed to be helping, and he was no longer bleeding. Overall, it looked a lot better than it did last night.

“It looks good. You seem to heal very quickly.”

He said nothing in reply. Obviously he healed quickly.

Angela didn’t let his little snub affect her. She began to rebandage him and tried to start another conversation. “What’s your name?”

He watched her for a moment considering answering her or not. Should he lie? If he did lie, it would have to be an elaborate lie. And explaining how he fell out of the sky would be tedious. When he could just tell her that he was a god and leave it at that. “I am called Loki,” he answered.

Angela froze. Loki? The same Loki that leveled the same town she was in charge of fixing? That Loki? The Loki that attacked his own brother? What were the chances?

Her brain went into overdrive with the millions of questions. She recovered from her shock and started to wrap his bandages like nothing had happened. But her mind couldn't quit thinking.

_‘He seemed confused when he first got here, but was that all a ploy? He was known as the God of Mischief and Lies. Did he have an agenda here? Was he here for Jane? Or was he really here due to circumstance? Should I tell SHIELD? I know I said I wouldn’t but--’_

Her thoughts were cut off by Loki asking her a question. He had caught her hesitation, and the knowing look in her eyes. “I take it you know who I am.”

There was silence before she replied, “Yes. I know who you are.”

Angela dared to look up in his eyes. He was waiting, that much she could tell. Waiting for what? She looked closer, and then realized. He was waiting for her to judge him. It was the same reaction she had every time she met someone new in SHIELD. Her reputation preceded her, just as his reputation preceded him. People rarely seemed to want to get to know her all because of who she used to be.

_‘No,’_ Angela decided. That wasn’t going to be her. She wasn’t going to be the one to toss him to the wolves. But she would be cautious around this man. He was, in fact, a very powerful being who could outwit her. She had to be extremely careful, and hope that she was right.

With that, she looked away and went back to finishing off his bandages.

Loki blinked, stunned, before recovering. Was that it? Most mortals after learning who he was either ran away or went down on their knees. Yet this woman didn’t even bat an eye. Sure, she was shocked at first, but it seemed as if she didn’t even care any longer. She still was helping him. _‘What a curious little thing she is...’_ he thought.__

_ __ _

Angela finished up wrapping him, and gave him a soft smile. She picked up his shirt and began to speak, “All done. I can wash this for you to get the blood out. I don’t have anything else for you to wear, but it shouldn’t take long for me to wash this. She stood up and made her way to the door. When she got there, she turned and faced him, “Are you hungry?”

_ __ _

Loki shook his head, unsure how to proceed. She had thrown him off his game. She had offered a complete stranger refuge in her home, and was tending to him. He couldn’t be rude to her.. At the moment he had nowhere to go, and if anything Frigga had raised him to be polite. So he put on his most charming personality possible.

_ __ _

“No, not at the moment,” he paused, “Forgive me, you seem to have me at a disadvantage. You know me, but don’t know you. What is your name?”

_ __ _

She gave him another polite, small smile, “My name is Angela. Angela Lawrence.”

_ __ _

“Angela, what a lovely name,” he complimented. “I’m actually rather tired at the moment, Lady Angela. But I thank you for allowing me in your home and tending to my wounds. You are truly kind.”

_ __ _

“Then go back to sleep. I’ll wash your shirt, and be out in the living room if you need me. And you can call me Angela.”

_ __ _

He nodded at her. Angela made her way out of the room, and shut the door in her wake.

_ __ _

Loki settled down into the bed, and shut his eyes. He honestly was tired. The fall had taken a lot out of him. He could feel the wear and tear his body went through from slipping through space. His mind also felt sluggish after the fall. That wouldn’t do. He needed to figure out what exactly he was going to do.

_ __ _

It wasn’t long before he fell into a deep sleep. And that was when the whispers started.

_ __ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always feedback is appreciated. I'll try to have these out sooner.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki meets the Other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy late Valentine's Day guys! This chapter was a bitch to write, but it's here!

Whispers filled the air around him as Loki found himself back on Asgard. Odin walking in front of his younger self and a younger Thor, telling them they were made to be king. The scene soon morphed to the day it all went wrong. The day that Jotun had grabbed him and instead of getting frost burn, he too turned a sapphire blue. He watched as he confronted Odin. Screamed at his so-called father, begged him to tell him why he had taken Loki from Jotunheim.

“You are my son,” Odin had said.

_ “Lied to,” _ the whispers sneered. Yes, he was lied to. It was no wonder he was named the God of Lies. That was all he knew.

Then Thor went and ruined it all by destroying the Bifrost. And the moment he beseeched his father while dangling on the edge, he was rejected.

_ “Betrayed,” _ they told him.

He had let go, intent on dying. But here he was. Alive, and enraged.

_ “Don’t you want your revenge?” _

It was one voice now instead of many talking over one another. The voice riverbed when it spoke and had a grainy tone to it.

Loki turned to face the voice. As he moved, the scenery around him disintegrated, and was replaced by a desolate, rocky, grey planet. The voice belonged to a blue, humanoid creature he did not know. The creature watched him , their large hands laced together in front of it. It was dressed in a blue cloak, with light grey chest armor covering it.

“Well, Asgardian? Do you?”

Loki laced his arms behind his back and leveled the creature with a critical eye. Even though he did want his revenge, he wasn’t about to accept any kind of help. When Asgard needed negotiating done, Loki had been the one sent to do it. He knew the art of a deal, and he wanted to always come out on top. He needed to know who exactly he was dealing with.

“Who are you?” Loki pressed coolly.

The creature began to circle him, “Who I am matters little, Asgardian. It is my master you should be concerned with.”

Loki didn’t move, instead he continued to watch. It felt much like he was being circled by a hawk. But Loki was a snake, and knew when to strike, and when to wait. “And your master is?” he questioned.

“Thanos. The Titan.” He came to stand directly before Loki.

The Mad Titan, more like. The entire galaxy had tales of him. Thanos’ army was large, and Thanos himself was exceedingly powerful. Thanos would destroy planets at his leisure, for what reason Loki never heard of. Thanos was spoken more of a cautionary tale, only in the most hushed voices.

Why would he want Loki? And why had he sent his subordinate to him? “What is your offer?” Loki asked.

“You will have your revenge. You can have your deepest desire, a throne. In return, my master would like information.”

The scene around him began to fade and Loki realized he was waking up in the real world. He needed to hurry this along.

“Information on what?”

“The Tesseract. It is rumored to be on that wretched planet that you have found yourself on. In the hands of something known as SHIELD. Confirm this, and we will give you the tools that can help you…” The voice began to fade, and Loki woke up.

His eyes snapped open, and he surged up from the bed into a sitting position. That had felt too real. His physical body still felt the soreness from the fall, but his mind was far more aware.

The Tesseract, huh? The Mad Titan wanted an infinity stone. And if Loki could tell him where it was, Loki would have access to what was no doubt very powerful tools. If Loki wanted to take over Asgard, he would have to be able to stand up to the mighty Thor, the Allfather and his army. That would be no easy feat, and he would need to even the playing field quite a bit. And this might be the way to do it.

But finding the blasted stone would prove to be difficult. A shield? What in Allfathers name was he supposed to do with that information? It could mean anything.

This was something he could ponder later. He hadn’t even accepted the deal yet. He awakened before he could, and who knows when they would get back to him. Right now, he needed to get his full strength back. He needed food, and then he would see if the invisibility spell he casted as he was falling still held up. He had casted it so Heimdall or anyone on the throne of Asgard wouldn’t be able to see him, and he wanted to keep that up. Because when he did get his revenge, he wanted the element of surprise on his side.

Still sitting in the bed, he took in his surroundings once more. The room was the same as it had been before. He couldn’t hear a thing. Angela must not be here, or asleep. He looked towards the windows and saw it was nearly dusk outside.

His feet touched the cold, wooden floor, and he left the room that he had spent all night and day in. Stepping out of the room, he was in a small hallway which led to a small kitchen with a small dining table, and a small living quarter. To his right, was another door similar to his.  _ ‘That must be her room, _ ’ he thought. To his left was a bathroom. It was tiny from what he could see, consisting of a toilet, bath, and a small sink.

Making his way forwards, he noticed another door right between the living quarters and the kitchen. It was a dark wood and he figured that must be the way out. He turned his gaze to the cozy living quarters. It had a light blue couch, a light-colored coffee table, a plasma screen, a cream-colored reclining chair, and a tall bookshelf.

Intrigued, Loki made his way to the bookshelf to see what all she had on it. It is mostly books, with odd décor scattered here and there. There’s a picture on the middle shelf that catches his attention. Angela was there, her arm around an older woman with darker skin than her. The similarities between them could clearly be seen; perhaps this was her mother? The darker-skinned woman had her arm around a pale, older man. That man had his arm around the shoulders of a boy that looked similar to Angela. This must be her family.

Loki sat the picture back in place and began to peruse her books. She had quite a collection, and he could tell that these books were well used. One shelf in particular caught his attention. She kept books of myths. A book on Egyptian myths, Greek myths, Chinese, Japanese, and Norse.

Ah. So that was how she knew who he was.

He takes the large book out of the shelf, and begins to flip through the pages. A scowl forms on his face as he comes across descriptions of the Allfather and Thor.

The front door to the house opens as he is reading through the book. Angela comes through carrying plastic bags of groceries. She shuts the door with her foot before she greets him.

“Oh hey!” She goes to set the groceries on one of the few kitchen counters, and walks back into the room. She takes off the jacket that she had been wearing and places it on coat rack next to the door.

Loki gives her a small smile and holds up the Norse mythology book, “Now I see where you learned of me.”

Angela chuckled .  _ ‘Yeah, that, and the fact that you are the very reason I got stationed out here,’ _ she thought, but decided not to say. Instead, she decided to go along with his idea. She raised her hands in mocking surrender, “You caught me. I like mythology.”

It wasn’t a lie. She figured being the God of Lies that he knew a lie when he heard it. But, it wasn’t the complete truth. It would do for now.

And it seemed that it worked because his grin grew larger and he chuckled at her small attempt at a joke. “Is it a myth if I am standing right here?”

Her face scrunched in concentration before a small smile appeared on her lips, “I guess not.” She shrugged, then started back to the small kitchen to put away what groceries there were. “I guess I should move that book to my non-fiction shelf.” she joked.

Loki put the book back on the shelf where he had found it. “I wouldn’t say that. Most of these tales are lies.”

“Says the God of Lies,” she quipped.

The smile dropped from his face as he remembered his thoughts earlier. Of how lies were all he was ever given. He didn’t reply back to her as he focused his attention on the picture of her family. What would she know? Her family seemed to be perfect.

Angela could almost feel the shift in the room. She turned and looked at Loki and saw the distant look in his eyes. They were just joking, what had happened? For the life of her she couldn’t understand what exactly she said, but it was better to change the subject.

“How do you feel?” She asked him in a very cautious manner while putting away what little groceries she had bought. What you feed a god, she didn’t know. But she hoped he liked chicken alfredo because that was what for dinner tonight.

Her voice had snapped him out of his thoughts, and he turned to face her. “I’m fine. I believe most of the healing is done. I’m just rather sore for now.”

“That’s good,” she looked back at him, and remembered something. “Oh, your shirt should be done by now.”

She finished up, and headed to a door that was across from the bathroom that he missed. She opened it, and in it were two machines. She opened one and pulled out his shirt. He watched as she came over to him with it and handed it over to him.

Loki took it from her. In all honesty, he had forgotten that he was only in his pants and that the only thing covering his chest were the bandages she had put on. He slid the shirt over his head, his muscles protested the movement, but he tried his best to ignore it.

“Thank you,” He said as he smooth the fabric down and righted the shirt.

She nodded, “No problem!” Then she made her way back to the kitchen to start dinner, “Are you hungry?”

He made to follow her, but something caught his eye: her jacket that was on the rack. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Black, long-sleeved, but there was a logo on the back. It was an eagle, with the words 'Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division’ circling around it.

“Loki?”

Her voice came from the kitchen, and she was giving him a questioning gaze.

“Um,” he couldn’t quite put his finger on why this had caught his attention. Had he seen this before? “Yes, I’m actually famished.”

“Cool, I’ll start dinner then. I hope you like pasta.”

His gaze lingered on the jacket, before he went and sat at the dinner table to wait for her. He tried to rack his brain for that image when he decided to let it be. It occurred to him that he should probably be getting to know this woman. It appeared he would be on Midgard for longer than he thought, and he needed a place to stay for now. She was the only Midgardian he knew, and he needed her for now until he got his footing.

“Lady Angela?” He called her.

He heard heer snort before turning her attention back to him, “Yeah?”

“I would like to thank you once again and apologize for my behavior when we first met. I was uncouth, and rude when you were nothing but kind to me. My mother would be appalled by my behavior.”

Angela just waved him off, “It’s fine. You were hurt, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer, now was I? But you’re welcome, Loki. And you can stay as long as you need.”

“I wouldn’t be intruding?” He hedged. Not that he truly cared if he was or not, but he had to make her feel at ease.

“No not at all. I’m the only one here. I just have the extra room for when my mom comes to visit, which is rare. It might be nice to have some actual company besides the people I work with.”

“And what is your job?” he asked. In all honesty, this Angela seemed boring to him. She was very forthcoming, and kind. In his experience those types of people didn’t mix well with his mischief. But he would make nice.

At the question, Angela hesitated. She put the pasta in the water and then turned so she was facing him. “It’s a bit difficult to explain actually. Basically, I work for an organization that protects the world.”

Loki sat back in the chair, and eyed her. What, he wondered, did she have to hide? Perhaps she wasn’t as forthcoming as she seemed. After all, he was a stranger. She did have some common sense.

Then he remembered the jacket, and the logo. “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division?” he questioned.

There was a slight tilt of her head, and a raise of her eyebrow, “And how did you know that?”

He simply pointed over to her jacket.

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t as careful as she should have been. No use in denying it now. “Yeah that’s where I work, but that’s a mouthful. We all just call it SHIELD.”

_ ‘Oh,’ _ Loki thought. _ ‘This day keeps getting better and better.’ _

Of course Thanos’ minion didn’t mean an actual shield, that he knew, but now he knew exactly what shield he was speaking of. An organization that ‘protects the world’ she said? It would make sense that if the Tesseract was in fact on Midgard they would have it.

Angela Lawrence just got a whole lot more interesting to Loki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are always appreciated! Have a wonderful day wherever you are!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angela ain't no dummy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry this was delayed, midterms kicked my ass. Anyway here's the chapter! And thank you to all of you who have commented and left kudos! It means a lot to me!

“That’s where I went earlier today before I picked up the groceries,” Angela said.

But Loki wasn’t listening at all. A wicked light entered Loki’s eyes at the realization of his good fortune. He was an opportunist, after all. All he needed to do was befriend Angela, and gain her trust. Enough trust that when he asked, she would tell him more about her SHIELD, particularly  _ where _ she worked. And then he would be able to find the Tesseract. 

He looked her over with a critical eye. He took in her profile as she stood over the stove cooking dinner silently. His earlier assessment of her still held true; she was attractive. Perhaps he should seduce her after instead of just befriending her. It would be a bit of fun, and an easier way to ensure her trust. He never had problems seducing people before. He wasn’t called the Silvertongue for nothing.

_ ‘No,’ _ he decided. He shook his head to clear those thoughts. Angela had been kind to him - kinder than anybody had been to him in a while. He wouldn’t be that cruel to her. Though he still would use her as a pawn for what he wanted to achieve. Asgard would burn by his hand. And to get that he needed allies. Angela was disposable, despite her kindness.

The sound of Angela’s soft voice pulled him out of his scheming, “So, I’ve been wondering something.”

He glanced at her. She had finished cooking and was bringing over two plates full of pasta. His emerald eyes followed the plate as it sat in front of him. The food looked and smelled delicious, and he was absolutely ravenous. Angela handed him a fork and he took it graciously with a quiet thank you.

“And what’s that?” He asked before taking his first bite.

“How did you get here?” Angela questioned, “What happened?”

Loki took another bite to buy time for his answer. He should have expected the question. It wasn’t every day that a man came crashing down from space. Especially on Midgard. He couldn’t tell her what actually happened. She would kick him out of here, and he needed her.

“There was an accident.” He finally answered after he finished chewing. His voice calm, almost unperturbed. As if he hadn’t tried to commit genocide, and he was currently lying through his teeth.

“An accident?” Angela pressed.

He didn’t answer for a moment, taking the time to devour his food quickly. He had to think of a lie. No, the best lies were based on truth.

By the time he did answer his plate was empty. His eyes seemed to gloss over, and his lips pulled into a thin line. Thor didn’t appreciate him trying to destroy Jotunheim. “There was a misunderstanding. The Bifrost broke. And I--”  _ I let go _ . “fell off the side. I was sent through space and it landed me here in Midgard.”

Angela stopped eating. Resting her face against her hand as she took in his story. Was that what happened? A misunderstanding? She doubted it. There had to be more to his story, but it seemed like he did fall. 

Then she began to wonder. What would it be like to just be floating through space? With no idea if you’ll survive or not? Or where you’ll land? It must be terrifying.

She took note of his empty plate. He must be starved. It had been three months, and he had just landed here last night. She doubted he had eaten in that amount of time.

“You can get more if you want,” she told him.

He lifted his head and nodded at her before getting up and heading over to the stove to get more food.

“I’m sorry that happened to you. It sounds horrible.” She said, genuinely.

He didn’t bother responding at first, opting to just fill his plate some more and sit back down. He didn’t want her pity, but for now, he would have to take it. So he muttered out a “Thank you,” when he went and sat at the table again.

Both of them lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence, in favor of their thoughts. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of their forks scratching against their plates. 

Angela was the first to break the silence, “Will you ever go back to Asgard?”

Loki looked up from his plate. Yes, he would, but she didn’t need to know that. 

“No. There’s nothing left for me there. I will stay here until I figure out what I should do.”

She nodded, got up from her seat, and placed her empty plate in the sink. So he was wandering. Angela remembered herself being in a very similar situation when she was only 15; lost, just trying to figure out where to go and what she could do. It wasn’t something she thought of often, it was a very painful memory. Before SHIELD found her, before they reconnected her to her birth mother.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she turned to address Loki once more. “I have work tomorrow, but afterward we can go buy you some clothes.”

“Clothes?”

“Yeah, unless you want to wear that every day?” She points to his green tunic and black leather pants. Surely it was uncomfortable to be wearing those pants every day. Though he did look great in them, but that was beside the point. “I’ll buy you some clothes, a toothbrush, stuff like that so you can be comfortable here while you figure this all out.”

Once again, her kindness baffled him. She was willing to do all this for a stranger? Surely she felt she was getting something out of this. Loki eyed her, before following suit and dumping the plate he had in the sink. He relaxed against one of the counters and watched her take out the tupperware from a cabinet and begin to put away the food. 

Then he remembered he was supposed to be befriending this woman. “Thank you, Lady Angela truly. Allow me.”

His magic swarmed through his body and gathered at his palm in a green wisp. He muttered a small spell under his breath. And then the kitchen was spotless. The plates washed and placed where they were supposed to, and the food put in the tupperware that was now placed nicely by him on top of the counter.

Angela blinked, the tubberware in her hands vanishing and then turned to see what had happened. She saw the green wisp, the magic. She could feel it lingering. She took one look at everything, and then her eyes landed on Loki.

“That’s handy,” she commented. “Thank you.”

“It is no trouble at all,” he said with his most charming smile.

She smiled back at him, “Well I guess I’m going to bed then. Good night Loki.”

He inclined his head towards her, “Good night, Lady Angela.”

Angela gave him a small wave, and then headed into her room and softly shut the door. She changed into her pajamas, and then sat on her bed and waited. The moment she heard Loki shut his door, she got to work.

As silently as she could, and she could be extremely quiet, she went over to her closet and pulled out a shoebox that was filled with cameras. She took the smallest one she had and began to rework it.

While he was being nice now, it didn’t mean he was always going to be nice. And she had no idea what he was planning. ** ** He was the God of Mischief and Lies, everything he said had to be taken with a grain of salt. However, she did truly want to help him.

She wasn’t going to bug her own house, no that would be a bit too obvious. He had magic, and she didn’t know how far it extended and what exactly his powers were. And she wasn’t going to bug him. She was bugging something else, or rather someone else: Dr. Jane Foster.

Angela didn’t know how much Loki knew about Thor’s time here on Earth, but it was better safe than sorry. If Loki had attacked his own brother then Jane Foster, Thor’s girlfriend, was most likely in danger.

As she was the only one who knew the potential danger Dr. Foster was in, it was up to her to protect her as best she could. Though she wasn't in charge of Jane's personal wellbeing and safety. Agent Barton was actually in charge of Dr. Foster’s safety, however, she was taking it upon herself to help in this particular situation.

Angela was here to report progress and to help if anything went wrong with the Einstein Rosebrigde. If things didn't go to plan and the bridge needed to be shut, Angela could do that with her powers.

She could create and close wormholes at will. They called her powers 'spatial manipulation’ in her files because she could do more, but it wasn’t something she did often. It took a lot out of her and caused her whole body to crash afterward. She only did it when absolutely necessary. 

Right now though, she would simply bug Dr. Foster's bag, and check in to see if anything was amiss. She would be able to hear and see anything. Easy peasy. And Loki would know no different, just in case, he did try something. She prayed to whatever god that was out there listening that he wouldn't. But for now, it was better safe than sorry. 

With one last look at the tiny camera, she placed it on her nightstand and then went to sleep.

* * *

After getting ready for work in the morning, Angela went straight to the kitchen to start the coffee pot and begin making a small breakfast. The sun had barely risen in the sky, and she barely got any sleep last night as usual.

Getting a cup of coffee had been the only thing on her mind, and maybe that’s why she didn’t hear Loki. But she felt the shift of space in the room, and she quickly turned around and found him coming up behind her.

He didn’t look any better than she felt. His hair was ruffled from sleep, and he seemed like he had just woke up. Loki seemed to realize he had startled her and gave her an apologetic smile, “My apologies.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she dismissed. It wasn’t like her to not notice someone sneaking up on her. Well, it wasn’t actively trying to sneak up on her, but still. She really needed this fucking coffee.

And maybe Loki did too, but the look of things. “I’m about to make breakfast and some coffee, do you want some?” she offered.

“Coffee?”

The pot was filled and Angela poured herself a cup first and then Loki. She handed him his mug and then went to the refrigerator to get the cream and picked up the sugar on the way back to begin fixing her coffee cup.

Loki looked down at the dark beverage, contemplating it. It smelled wonderful, unlike anything they had on Asgard. The last thing she fed him was great, so this one should be too. With that thought he took a sip of the coffee, only to immediately regret it.

It was bitter, exceedingly so. A sound of disgust left his lips, causing Angela to look up from her own cup. His face should have been the picture in the dictionary for the definition of disgust because his lips were curled, his nose was scrunched up and he was looking at the cup as if it had just offended his whole family. Angela couldn’t help but laugh.

He looked over at her. Was this some sort of joke to her?

Her laughter died down, “Sorry. Some people like it black. I don’t, I hate bitter stuff.” She offered him her cup, “Here try mine.”

Loki looked from his cup to hers. The coffee in his cup was just as she described it, black. But the coffee in hers was a light brown. Slowly, hesitantly he sipped hers. It was far more pleasant than the rubbish she gave him early. In fact, he enjoyed it.

“Better?” She asked, eyeing him.

He nodded, “Much.”

She took both cups back from him and began to fix his up as she did hers. “I can make yours sweeter if you’d like?”

He nodded. He did enjoy sweet things, “Please.”

She smiled and obliged by adding a bit more sugar to his cup. She should have known, it’s said that tricksters have a sweet tooth. But she wasn’t going to say that, last time she talked about his titles, he grew upset.

She quickly whipped up some bacon and eggs while Loki sipped on his coffee. They ate, both of them not really discussing much because they were both still waking up. When Angela was finished Loki cleaned up with his magic one again.

She tied her boots up and headed for the door. She paused, put her jacket on, and looked back at Loki who was now looking through her books. “I’ll be back around six-ish. Then we can go and pick some stuff up for you. I got books, and the TV you can watch. If you get hungry, there are the leftovers in the fridge. You can heat them up in the microwave,” she told him.

Loki glanced over at her and threw her a bright smile, “Of course. I’ll await your return, Lady Angela.”

A soft huff escaped her lips, “You can just call me Angela, you know?”

“Angela then,” he ceded.

“See you later, Loki.”

“Goodbye, Angela.”

Angela closed and locked the door, and went to her car. Once in there, she pulled out the mini camera and checked it once more. She made it to where she could check it from her phone and laptop. It was ‘offline’ right now, but she would turn it on once it was in place.

Good. Everything was in place.

The drive into Albuquerque and to the SHIELD facility wasn’t long. Angela walked in, greeting the staff there as she searched for Dr. Foster. She was in the middle of the lab, working with Dr. Selvig, and Darcy Lewis sitting in a chair on her phone. She looked up to see Clint Barton watching from the second level. Ever the hawk...

“Good morning,” Angela greeted.

“Morning,” Jane muttered, focused on whatever she was looking at on a screen.

Dr. Selvig was a bit more personable, “Good morning, Agent Lawrence.”

“Hey, Lawrence,” Darcy said with a small wave.

Angela casually scrolled over by Jane, quickly taking note of her bag not far from the scientist. Angela’s hand fiddled with the camera inside her jacket pocket. ‘ _ Don’t be suspicious.’ _ “How goes the Rosenbridge?” she asked.

“Very well actually,” Selvig answered for Jane. “We think we’re on the verge of a breakthrough.”

Looking up, Angela tried to see if Barton could see her, only to find him gone. Now was her chance.

Angela looked over to the bag and started to head towards it, “Really? That’s great to hear. Hey, Dr. Foster?”

Jane looked up at her, “Yeah?”

Quickly, with deft hands, Angela attached the camera to the side of the bag, where Jane couldn’t see her, and then held it out. “Where’d you get this? It’s cute, and I need one like it to take some stuff with me back and forth to Puente.”

“Oh!” Jane smiled, “Target! But I got it a long time ago, so they probably don’t have that one anymore, but I’m sure they have some like it.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks!” Angela smiled while setting the bag down she made sure that the camera couldn’t be seen at all. Once satisfied, she started making her way out. “I’ll let the Director know what going on here. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Before she could leave though, Barton stepped into the room and stopped her.

“Actually Agent, you’ll be staying here for the time being.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated ❤❤❤


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angela helps Jane with her Einstein Rosen Bridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, self isolation has not helped me be creative at all. I thought I could use all this free time to write, but what ended up happening was me just staring at the screen and the exiting the document lol. Until of course I was almost asleep at 3am and my brain decided that was the perfect time to write. But anyway here's the chapter.  
Please guys, stay safe. Wash your hands. Limit your exposure if you can.

A cold feeling flooded her body. However, on the outside she only remained calmed. She didn’t tense, she didn’t move one feature in her face. She used every bit of training she had gotten since she was a child to appear as unaffected and natural as possible. She gave Barton a questioning look.

“Dr. Foster and Dr. Selvig want to do a trial for the bridge next week. You’re gonna be needed,” Barton explained.

“Alright,” she replied coolly. 

This week would be oh so interesting.

Taking Loki to Walmart had been an experience. He wasn’t exactly happy with ‘Midgardian clothing’ as he called it, but they found some things that he tolerated. Especially since she had put her foot down and said that this was the only selection he was choosing from. He seemed shocked at first, then unamused, but he relented and picked out what he wanted. Taking him grocery shopping was better, he said he trusted her judgement since the meal she made last night was good. Then they passed the bakery section, and he looked like a child at the candy store. So she bought him a cake.

For the next week, her and Loki fell into an easy routine. She would go to work in the morning, and come back in the evening. She didn’t know exactly what he did while she was away, but when she got home he would be on the couch reading a book. Then she would cook dinner, he would clean up, and they would either watch TV or movies or read until they went to bed. It was nice to come back home to somebody, even if he was a spoiled prince at times.

They got along well, at least in her opinion. They would talk about this and that. She was trying to teach him about Earth and ‘Earthly customs’. From pop culture - which she mostly used the internet and TV for that - to history and myths, to, well anything really. Sometimes he would look at her like what she had just said was crazy and stupid usually about pop culture. Which, she could understand. Sometimes she didn’t get it either. And to be fair, from what he had told her about Asgard, it seemed far more advanced than Earth.

He didn’t just speak of Asgard. He was well educated on many topics. But her favorite to listen to was magic. He would get so animated in his explanations, and the spells that he cast were insanely beautiful.

Currently though, Angela was driving to the area where the trial run would take place. It was someplace far out in the desert where Thor had first landed. Jane thought that they would have a better chance of success there.

Angela pulled up to the scene and parked far from the equipment. Barton, Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig, and Darcy, were already there. So scientists were still setting some things up and pulling up alongside Angela. She quickly made her way over to the rest of the team.

“Great you’re here,” Jane greeted.

“Where do you need me?” Angela asked.

She knew what she was here to do. Fury had told her if things started to go to shit, shut it down. That, she could do.

“I’m going to try and open it over here.” Jane pointed over to the engraving that was still on the ground from the Bifrost. 

Angela nodded and stood adjacent to it, ready for it.

Barton came and stood beside her.He wore his gear and had his bow ready. He was there to help her mostly. Fury informed him what happened when she used her powers. He glanced down at her, “You ready?”

“Yes.”

It didn’t take long for them to set everything up and give the all clear.

“Darcy,” Jane’s voice called out. “You ready?”

“Yup!” She answered back.

“Erik?” Jane asked.

Erik booted up his machine and called out, “Yes!”

“Alright, let’s do this.” Jane pressed a button on her machine and it roared to life. Soon the spot above the engraving swirled with energy and then a portal opened. It was small, but a portal nonetheless.

“It worked!” Jane cried out, clearly ecstatic that her theory had worked.

Angela stood in front of the portal and peered in.

Inside was a horrible looking group of creatures. They were almost reptilian, but they looked like they were machines. One turned and looked her straight in the eyes, before snarling and snapping its jaws at her.

A loud beeping interrupted her stare down and she quickly tossed a glance back at Jane. Jane was frantically trying to fix whatever was happening on the machine.

“Shut it down!” Angela commanded harshly. She looked back at the portal to see the creature heading straight for them.

Jane hit the machine with her fist, “The system overloaded! I can’t!”

“Fuck,” Angela muttered.

She took a deep breath and held out her hand. She felt the power shifting around her fingertips and she reached out and grasped the power that surrounded the portal. She imagined a door, and tried to shut it.

The creature’s friends had noticed now and were all running at them at a breakneck speed. 

Barton’s arrow was trained on them. He threw a quick glance to Angela and noticed her eyes were no longer brown, but glowing a vibrant blue. “Angela?”

“Trying!” She shouted back. It felt like she and someone else were fighting to keep a door open. She pulled as hard as she could, and it finally shut.

“What the hell do you think those were?” Clint asked.

But Angela wasn’t really listening. She felt blood dripping from her nose, and her head began to swim. Soon her legs went out from under her, and she landed on her knees.

“Angela?!” Clint’s voice sounded far away even though she knew he was right there beside her.

“Give me…. a minute. I’ll… be fine. Just...” She trailed off and forced herself to breathe deeply.

_ ‘You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine.’  _ She chanted to herself in her head.

Clint held a hand out, and she took it graciously. He helped her stand, and she dusted herself off. Jane came over and handed her a bottle of water and a tissue for her nose. Angela looked down and saw the blood stains on her gray shirt.

“Are you going to be okay?” Jane asked her.

“Yeah,” Angela lied. Right now she needed to get home. When she used her powers she tended to pass out. She could feel it coming, but she was holding off as long as she could. “Barton, could you cover for me?”

He nodded, “Yeah. Take the rest of today off. You did good. I’ll send the report to Fury and get back with you in the morning.”

“Alright cool,” and with that she headed to her car and left.

She honestly didn’t know how she got home, but by the time she stumbled through the door, she was in bad shape. The entire world seemed to be spinning and her nose was bleeding again. She could hear talking, but everything sounded like she was underwater.

“You’re home ear-” Loki finally lifted his head up from the book he was currently reading and saw the shape she was in. “Angela?” he stood to go and help her.

She took two more steps in the house, and fainted.

Loki caught her before she hit the ground. What in the Realms had she gotten into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always welcome :)  
Stay safe!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We visit Loki's POV of the past week, and how he handles Angela's fainting. The Other visits again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I supposed to be studying for finals? Yes. Am I writing this instead? Yes. Am I going to regret this? Probably yes. I only get creative when I'm pressured to do other things. So here we are.  
I hope you y'all have been staying safe, and washing hands, and social distancing if you are able. I know y'all are sick of hearing it, but seriously. It's crazy out here.  
Enjoy the chapter. It's not much dialog, but I wanted to explore Loki's side. I'm quite sure most of you are here for Loki. Don't worry, I am too lol.

Loki didn’t often get surprised. People often turned out exactly as he thought they would when he first met them. Angela, however, shocked him. It seemed there was more under that nice, understanding exterior. Turns out, she was incredibly intelligent and witty. She also wasn’t kind to a fault like he had assumed she was. The little incident at Walmart had proved that she had some bite to her after all. A rather big one in fact. At first, it had annoyed him, but in the end he had left slightly impressed.

With what little time together they had together between her working, he spent trying to get to know her. In the beginning, it was solely due to his need of infiltrating her agency. So far he’s had little ground on that front. She was very tight-lipped on her work. He figured she would be, she worked at an intelligence agency. Now, he spent trying to get to know her because she had impressed him.

Angela was a very curious person. By nature, most intelligent people were. It was how one gained knowledge, after all; to ask questions, to learn more. The moment she realized he had no issue with answering her questions about the universe, she couldn’t help herself but to ask more. She wanted to know everything. So he indulged her, and answered whatever question she threw his way.

She had also seemed especially enamored with his magic. It had been a long time since he had actually dazzled someone with it. Everyone on Asgard considered it to be easy tricks. Which was another reason he and Thor grew apart. Everyone loved Thor for being a pure warrior. Yet no one cared for his use of magic in the battlefield. Angela seemed to understand the effort it took to cast even a tiny illusion spell. She wanted to know more about magic, the technicalities of it. Not just sit and watch him perform spells.Which he took in stride and tried to explain as best he could. And she appeared to understand it quickly, and absorb the information as a sponge would water.

With her gone so long during the day they rarely had the chance for him to give an in depth lecture on it. So far he’s been telling her of Asgard and she’s just been informing of Midgardian customs. Midgardians have changed since he was last here centuries ago. 

When she wasn’t here, he had to find some means to entertain himself. Which wasn’t difficult considering she had taught him to work the television and ‘Netflix’ as she called it. But, he mostly enjoyed reading her books. She had good taste. Right now he was reading the completed works of William Shakespeare. When he wasn’t doing either of those, he was testing out his magic. During his fall, they seemed to have grown exponentially. What used to take most of his energy, barely bothered him anymore. He was using this time to better himself. And it was working.

But today, Loki was on a mission. Last night, Angela had gotten a call from work and spent some time on her laptop. This meant she kept work-related information on there. The moment she left, he was going to see what all he could find on SHIELD and use it to start a plan.

Her schedule was the same everyday he had been here. When the sun rose, she would wake, get ready for the day, and then break her fast. Then she would leave around 7 a.m., and not return until 6 p.m. That gave him plenty of time to take her laptop and formulate a plan from there.

At seven on the dot, she left just like she always did. Loki took his time cleaning the kitchen, instead of using his magic, to stall just in case she forgot something and came back. It was highly unlikely that she would, the woman was extremely organized, but he did so just in case. Once he was done he crept into her room, and grabbed her laptop. He sat on the edge of her bed and opened it. It was heavily encrypted, but that didn’t mean much to him. Midgardian technology was completely obsolete to the rest of the Nine Realms, and he easily bypassed it with his magic.

After a few moments of searching, he found what he was looking for. The SHIELD database. Angela was high clearance, apparently, but not high enough to gain access to what he was looking for. either that, or they didn’t want her to know of the Tesseract. Still, she could be of some use to him. He had yet to see exactly what she was capable of.

Using his magic, he navigated his way through her file and began to read. 

**‘Name: Angela Janette Lawrence.**

**Date of birth: February 20th, 1986**

**Codename: Eclipse.**

**Level Clearance: 8**

**Assassin. Undercover Spy. Field operative.’**

_ ‘My my,’ _ Loki thought.  _ ‘What else is she hiding?’ _

As he began to peruse the rest of her file, he heard the tell-tale sound of her car pulling up to the house. He quickly glanced down at the time. It was only around 9 a.m., what in the realms was she doing home so early?

He hurried and quickly erased all of his doing on her laptop with his magic, set it back in its place and hasily went to the living room and opened a book. He had made it just in time to hear her unlocking the door with her key. He pretended to be reading his book, to appear as nonchalant as possible.

As the door opened he began to speak to her, “You’re home ear-”

Loki lifted his head and almost had to do a double take. Angela was leant up against the doorway, dried blood under her nose. Her blood had dripped down on her dark gray shirt, and left dark spots all down it.

Before he realized what he was doing he stood from the couch and discarded his book. He made his way over to help her. “Angela?”

But she didn’t respond. She was unsteady as she took a few steps into the house.

He knew she was going faint before it happened. He saw the way her eyes glazed over, and the way they rolled in the back of her head. He darted to catch her in his arms. 

He picked her up with ease and carried her to her bedroom. He gently set her on top of her bed before going to fetch a rag to clean her up a bit. As he cleaned her up, he laughed quietly to himself about the irony. Guess it was his turn to take care of her. He used his magic to check her over, and see exactly what was wrong with her.

It seemed the poor dear had severely over-exerted herself. As his magic washed over her, he felt a pulse of power against it.

Oh?

It was weak right now, but it was certainly there still fighting. This is what must have put her out.

To his knowledge, Midgardians didn’t have powers, but once again he hadn’t been here for centuries. And he had learned that he did, in fact, miss much during his absence.

He gazed down at her, looking at her in a new light. Assassin, spy, and had powers. My, what a curious little thing she had become all in one morning.

With her only being exhausted, his job was done. He took the books she was wearing off her feet, then her jacket, and put the blanket over her.

She was knocked out for the rest of the day. Anytime he would go to check on her, she would be whimpering in her sleep. And she was like that the last time he checked on her before settling down for the night as well.

The moment he fell asleep, he knew he wasn’t dreaming. He was back in the desolate land, which meant…

“Asgardian,” the voice rang out from behind him.

He turned slowly, and came face to face with the disgusting creature from last time. Loki met him with a leveled look.

“Have you confirmed the whereabouts?”

Loki linked his hands behind him, “Not as of yet.”

The creature began to circle him, but Loki didn’t budge an inch and kept his eyes on the thing. “Is this meager excuse of a planet that difficult to traverse for you?”

Loki glared, “Worry not, I’m on the right track. I’ll soon-”

A loud scream pierced through the air causing Loki to break eye contact. He glanced around to see the image fading rapidly and he began to wake.

He shot up awake, and heard the screaming continue.

It was Angela screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are appreciated!   
Stay safe <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angela has a nightmare. We learn of some of her past. Her and Loki kind of bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heed the torture tag guys. The beginning of this chapter is a dream/nightmare. After the cut is real life. I also post this on Tumblr. I'm thinking of posting it to FF.net soon.

“Again!” her father’s voice rang out through the room. He was in the back, looming - watching like he always did during training sessions. It had been like this since she was old enough to hold a knife - that age being six.

Angela was drenched in sweat, and she was panting hard trying to catch her breath after sparring with three grown men. She was only ten. She stood up straight, took a deep breath, and charged at the man right in front of her.

Only to be knocked flat on her ass.

“Enough!” her father bellowed. His dark figure came strolling over and the men around her gave way to him. He stood over her, and she looked up in fear. His dark skin shined under the intense lighting of the training room, and in his visage she could only see disappointment. “Grab her and bring her to the treatment room.”

Panic seized her. “No no no no no,” she begged. The men grabbed her by her arms and she began to struggle with all her might. She hit one of them in the crouch and he doubled over, but he was immediately replaced by the other one. “Please! Dad! I’ll do better, I promise! Just don’t--”

“Be quiet, Angela.” He snapped, and then left the room.

The entire way down she struggled - kicking, screaming, and crying. Her father was nowhere to be found the moment they opened the basement door (aka the treatment room). It was a damp, dark place. The only light that was given off was some old fluorescent lights that blinked above. A bunch of equipment was in there, and surrounding a medical exam table, that came with restraints.

She was strapped down to the table, though it took them some effort. She knew they were - that her father was - going to use that glowing cube on her again. So she fought like her life depended on it. By the time they had her wrist strapped down and her legs, her father had emerged.

“Calm yourself,” He instructed. He walked passed the table, straight to another machine and booted it up. The men around her attached some sticky heart monitors to her and soon the room was filled with the sound of an EKG keeping track of her fast heartbeat.

Angela watched as her father retrieved the blue, glowing cube with a pair of metal tongs, and put it in place. He came over to her, and gazed down at her.

Her lip trembled and the tears wouldn’t stop rolling down her cheeks, “Please, I’ll be good I promise, just--”

“That’s enough. We do this so you’ll be the best. You’re my perfect little weapon, Angela.” he brushed a piece of hair from her face as he spoke softly to her. “Now open.”

She reluctantly opened her mouth and he all but shoved a mouthguard in there. She closed her eyes and waited.

She heard the machine whirl to life, and then that was the last thing she heard. The pain that coursed through her body was tremendous. It felt like pure molten lava coursing through her veins. Like something was trying to fit under her skin. All she could do was scream.

* * *

“Angela! Angela, wake up,” Loki commanded as he shook her shoulder.

Angela’s reflexes took over before she could comprehend what she was doing. She snacted the hand that was on her shoulder, and bent it backwards. She quickly turned over to see who it was that had touched her.

Loki’s jaw set, and he stared down at her waiting for her to let go of his hand. He realized she wasn’t fully awake, and didn’t know what she was doing. “It’s me - Loki. You were having a nightmare.”

A look of realization dawned on her face, and she dropped his hand, “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I--”

He resisted the urge to rub his hand, but he did subtle roll his wrist to relieve some of the pain. For a mortal, she had quite the grip. “It’s alright, darling,” he soothed.

“Did I wake you up? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she sat up in the bed and ran her hands through her hair in exasperation. 

This was a recurring nightmare of her past. That man tortured her and experimented on her for years. He trained her to be a killer. He wasn’t even her father. Just a rogue ex-agent of SHIELD named Marshall Corbain who had kidnapped her as a child and killed her actual father. Fury said that Marshall was once a top agent at SHIELD, but then wanted to restart HYDRA and took the Tesseract and ran. SHIELD had tried tracking him down for 20 years.

Loki watched her carefully, unsure of what exactly to do. He wasn’t sure how she would react to him trying to comfort her. Whatever the nightmare she had was, it obviously caused her a lot of grief. Yet, she didn’t seem too shaken by having a nightmare. It was almost as if she had them frequently. But he decided to approach her with care, “It’s alright. There’s no need to apologize,” he tried to soothe her again. “I was having my own own nightmare of sorts.

Angela’s gaze slid to him, searching for any lie in his face - in his eyes. When she didn’t find any, her features softened. She graced him with a small, tired smile. “Well, thank you for waking me up.” She turned so her feet were now on the floor, sitting next to him. “I’m just going to watch a bit of TV or something now. You can go back to bed. I promise I won’t bother you again.”

He kept his gaze on her. She hadn’t faced him again. Her gaze was directed towards the floor where her feet lay and she resembled a scolded child almost. His heart almost clenched in his chest. Though he believed Angela to be kind, he never thought her weak. In fact, he thought she was fairly strong in every sense of the word. Seeing her like this… didn’t settle well with him.

“I doubt I would be getting any sleep, anyhow.” He offered softly.

Angela’s brown eyes rose and she peered at him, once again searching. He kept his gaze leveled, knowing somehow that she wouldn’t want to be seen as weak. He wouldn’t want to be seen as that either.

Once she found whatever she was looking for, she softened again. “Well, do you...wanna watch a movie with me then?”

He nods, gets up from her bed and opens the door. With a grin he gestures for her to lead the way. She smiles at him, and slowly heads to the living room. She only turns on the lamp, opting to mostly remain in the dark. Loki comes in just as she turns on the television, and starts the DVD player. They decide on some cheesy comedy movie before settling down into opposite ends of the couch.

The previews played and Loki’s mind wandered back to her behavior after he had awoken her. “So, does it happen often?” he asked, glancing at her. 

Angela had arranged herself so her feet were taking up the middle part of the couch, and her arm rested on the arm of it, holding her head She turned to look at him, bewilderment on her face, “Huh?”

He dug himself deeper into the couch, spreading his legs to take up more room before him since hers weren’t there, “Your nightmare. You didn’t seem too shaken by it.”

He had caught her off-guard. Sometimes, Loki was far too observant for her liking. Usually it was her who noticed everything, not the other way around. She tried to deny it but all that came out was a lousy, “Um.”

So she took a moment to try again. But, lying to the God of Lies seemed like a dumbass thing to do. So she told him the truth. “Yeah, it does.”

“Does it have anything to do with why you returned home in such a state?” he questioned.

She fixed her gaze to the TV, but still answered him. “No, not really. That had to do with my job.”

It occurred to her that she passed out here in the living room. But when she woke up, she had been in her bed. She looked down at herself and realized that one.) her jacket was off. Two.) so were her shoes. And three.) her face didn’t feel covered in dry blood any longer. So that meant Loki must have helped her out.

She didn’t expect him to just leave her there, no, but she was used to picking herself back up by herself after things like this happened. Still... 

“Thank you for taking care of me,” she said softly.

The movie had begun, but Loki wasn’t paying attention. His focus was still on Angela. He smiled at her before speaking again. “Think nothing of it. I do believe I owe you.” His grin then turned wicked, “Besides, far be it from me not to help a pretty damsel in distress.”

Angela snorted, then rolled her eyes before focusing her attention back on the movie.

“How did you end up like that?”

“I just did too much at once. But, I had to so,” she shrugged.

“With your powers?”

He head snapped to him, her eyes wide, “Excuse me?”

He eyed her carefully. Did she not want him to know? “I wished to know what was wrong. So I checked you over with my seidr, darling,” he explained. “It relieved your powers to me, but I couldn’t quite make them out. They were weakened.”

She shifted uncomfortably, before settling down once again. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I overdid it with my powers. I can’t control them that well.”

Loki’s mind drifted to how she looked when she came through the door. It still didn’t sit right with him. “They seem to work well with my seidr. Perhaps I could train you to control them?” he offered.

She froze. If she could control her powers, then maybe she wouldn’t be hit so hard with them when she needed to use them. But everytime she used her powers, she was reminded of how she got them. She would have to consider it. “I don’t know…” she replied to him finally.

He nodded slowly. “Think it through.”

They both lapsed into a silence after going back and paying attention to the movie. Angela’s mind was more occupied with the decision of Loki’s offer. Soon though, her eyelids grew heavy and she started to lay down on the couch rather than sit. Then before she nodded off, she remembered that he said he had a nightmare tonight as well. Her head lifted slightly from the arm of the couch so she could look at him.

“What about your?” she asked softly.

Loki had actually been watching the movie and her voice broke him out of it. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your nightmare? Earlier you asked me if I had mine often. Do you have yours?”

He shifted. It wasn’t technically a nightmare. But the prospect of Thanos and his minion unnerved him. His minion had only come once before tonight, but he was sure he would see more of him, “More so lately.”

She nodded. He hadn’t asked her what hers was about, so she wouldn’t ask him. But she did feel bad he was having nightmares. It was never enjoyable. “I’m sorry,” she whispered before closing her eyes again.

Loki watched her slowly fall asleep, an ache in his chest. “I’m sorry as well,” he whispered. Though he wasn’t sure if he was only sorry for her nightmares or something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated.  
If you want, follow my tumblr: lostmythoftruelove.tumblr.com it's mostly a personal blog though. I still post a lot of Loki though.  
Stay safe, and lot of love <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after Angela encounters the Chitauri, and The Other pays Loki another visit, and they fall asleep on the couch together. They bond and get to know one another more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back? Back again?  
So... 2020, huh?  
I hope everyone is healthy and happy and is doing well. 2020 has been quite a ride. I had every intention of continuing writing this and doing my usual 2 week routine, but sadly my father passed in July, and I wasn't feeling very creative anymore.  
I've been working on this chapter slooowly since then. I've rewritten this over and over and over again, and present y'all my longest chapter ever. And it was going to be longer!! I've cut it short because it will make me feel better to get something out. I hope to start writing the next chapter after American Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday. And I hope that I won't have to take such a long time between chapter's again.  
Thank you all for the hits and the kudos that came in the meantime. I appreciate it, and they really keep me going. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.  
Stay safe, everyone!

The muffled ringing of her cell phone woke Angela up the next morning. Or at least, she believed it was morning. The sun was glaring throughout the house through the blinds. For all she knew it could be the afternoon.She had passed out for what seemed hours. Sleep still clung to her eyes, and her consciousness, disorienting her. She looked around, trying to get her bearings. 

She was currently laying on the couch, with her feet in Loki’s lap. Loki was asleep, his head resting uncomfortably on the back of the couch. They both must have fallen asleep watching the movie.

Slowly, Angela removed her feet from his lap, trying to not wake him. Last night, she apparently wasn’t the only one who had a rough go of sleeping. And Loki had helped her out. He deserved what rest he could get. 

Her phone had stopped ringing by the time she quietly made her way to where it was. It was still inside her jacket pocket. Which Loki had kindly folded and placed on top of her dresser for her yesterday. She pulled it out from the pocket, and took note of the time. It was early morning. Very early in fact. The call had to be someone from work.

The missed call notification was from Clint. A soft smile appeared on her face. Clint must be worried about her. Hell, she would have been worried if she saw anyone leave the way she left yesterday. Quickly, she called him back.

It didn’t take long for him to answer. “Hey, I know it’s early, but I wanted to see if you were alright.”

“Yeah,” she assured him, “I’m cool. Just had to sleep it off, y’know?”

“That’s good, you had me worried there, but I kinda figured.” She could hear the relief in his voice.

The relationship between her was a strong, platonic one. Fury tended to put Barton, Romanoff, and her on missions together. In some form of grouping or another. Between the getting shot, and the infiltrating bases they had grown to be close friends. She wasn’t as close to Clint as Natasha was, but then again she wasn’t in a romantic relationship with him. She trusted Clint Barton with her life. And she knew it went the other way around. She didn’t know everything about the man, but that didn’t really matter. What she did know was that he wasn’t as dumb as he acted. His perception could be as sharp as his aim. And he was on the very, very short list of people she trusted to watch her six. That’s what truly mattered.

“So, uh-” Clint’s voice came through the speaker, “-I spoke with Fury yesterday and he wants your report ASAP. And an update on your condition. He mentioned that you would be able to take today off as well.”

“Woo,” she muttered unenthusiastically, “I get today instead of tomorrow off.”

“No, I think you get your regular day off too.”

“Oh wow. It must be Christmas,” she joked lightly.

He laughed sharply, “You’re forgetting we don’t get holidays.”

She sighed dramatically, “Yeah, I know. Maybe we should open up more wormholes and I can get more time off.”

He snorted, “We might not be so lucky next time.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Well, I’m gonna go ahead and call Fury then. I’ll see you Monday, Clint.”

“Yeah, see ya. Enjoy your time off.”

“I will.” With that she hung up the phone. 

Contacting Director Nicholas Fury usually wasn’t an easy task. Typically, there were people she had to go through first. Specifically Agent Coulson, and finally Agent Hill, his right-hand woman. And that was even with their close relationship. The man was the director of an intelligence agency. The less people able to contact him, the safer he - and that person - was. Fury was the one to contact you. Usually face-to-face in a dramatic fashion.

However, he had given her and Barton a way to contact him directly due to his interest in Dr. Foster and Dr. Selvig’s work. Angela knew that he would be awake by now. If the sun was up, so was Nicholas Fury. He was busy and he never wasted a second that could be spent doing something productive.

Dialing the number, she waited patiently for him to pick up. When he did, she immediately greeted him. “Director.”

“Lawrence,” he responded in kind. “How’re you holding up?”

His voice had been neutral, but Angela knew he was concerned. When she first encountered SHIELD, it was Fury who tried to help her. She had ran, but he didn’t give up on her. Eventually, he got through to her, and they became closer. She owed that man everything. He took her under his wing, and treated her more like a daughter than her ‘father’ ever did.

“I’m pretty good. I should be fine, all things considered,” she told him genuinely, trying to reassure him.

“That’s good. Barton informed me of what happened. What all did you see?” 

Straight to the point. Just how Angela liked it.

“Some sort of alien life form. Difficult to actually describe what they looked like, but they looked like they were part machine. It was frightening, to tell you the truth sir,” she explained.

He didn’t respond for a moment, conceplating what she had said. “For now, we wait and watch. We may have pissed them off, and if we did, we don’t want to have more trouble. We have no idea what they are capable of or who they are.”

“They didn’t seem all that intelligent. At least not like the Asgardians. At least they could speak with us.”

“Or maybe we committed a huge faux pas, and it was on sight. It’s still best to be cautious. And for you to get your strength back up. You’re our best bet right now, Lawrence.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll do my best,” she replied sincerely.

“Rest up for now, Lawrence. You earned it. You’re back up Monday. I’m expecting you with Dr. Foster and Dr. Selvig first thing in the morning, and then I want you to canvas Puente Antiguo just to make sure.”

“Got it,” she replied.

He hung up without another word, per usual.

Angela laid back on her bed the fact that she had two full days off finally catching up with her. She never took a sick day, never really asked for time off. She honestly didn’t know what to do with herself. 

Looking down, she realized she was still in her clothes from before. A shower, that’s what she’d do with herself.

* * *

Loki awoke to the sound of a door opening. He opened his tired eyes and found himself in the living room on the couch. His neck ached from the position he finally fell asleep in. His eyes focused on the digital clock under the TV and realized it was getting close to the time Angela usually left for work.

Today could be another chance for him to access Angela’s laptop and get more information on the Tesseract. Schemes of what he could do bound around in his thoughts, but then thoughts of yesterday and last night drifted into his mind. The way Angela returned him, bloodied. The sound of her whimpers, and the sound of her screams. The panic and fear on her face when he had first woke her. And how his chest ached as he watched her sleeping form, trusting him with her in her fragile state...

Perhaps another time. Angela could come back again. The chances of him getting caught were too high and too risky.

There was that damn ache in his chest again, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand it.

“Oh! You’re up!” Angela’s voice came from the hallway.

He glanced back to see her and a small smile appeared on her face. She fully walked out of the hallway with an arm full of clothes.“Good morning.”

He smiled back at her before greeting her, “Good morning, darling. Off to work?”

“Actually I got the day off. Tomorrow too,” she smiled even wider. “Maybe we could go see a bit more around town and do something fun.”

“Fun?” Loki repeated with a slight teasing smirk. “You have fun?”

“Okay, first off, rude. Second off, yes. We could go get some breakfast, go shopping, go to the movies, go do something other than having you rot in this house.”

He considered it for a moment, “I suppose that would be fine.”

“Cool, just let me take a shower and get ready and we can head out for the day.”

He nodded and she headed back over to the bathroom. Loki got up, stretched, and headed to his room to change for the day as well. A simple button down and some slacks. He fixed his hair with his magic. He left the room and sat on the couch to read a book.

It was taking Angela a bit longer than usual to get ready. Perhaps she just enjoying a nice, hot shower. He let himself get lost in the words of the Bard. He heard the bathroom door open and Angela stepped out.

He looked back and his eyes widened. For the first time since he'd known her, her hair was down.It went past her shoulders, and the natural ringlets framed her face. She was also wearing some cosmetics today as well. A thick black line ending in a wing shape on her eyes, and a pretty pink blush on her cheeks. Her lips glossy. She wore a simple short-sleeved yellow blouse and shorts that showed off her long legs and thighs.

She walked into her room and grabbed what she called a ‘purse’ before even acknowledging him. “Alright, I’m ready.”

He shook himself from his momentary stupor, “Yes, as am I.” He stood from the couch, and replaced the book in the shelf with his seidr. He opened the door and gestured for her to go ahead, "Ladies first."

She smirked at him and walked past, "Why thank you, good sir."

He smiled and opened her car door while she locked the front door. By the time he climbed in, she had already gotten her seatbelt on and started the car. He fastened his, and leaned back.

Once settled, he spoke again to her, “You look lovely today.”

Shocked, she looked over at him, “Thank you. You look good today too.”

The rest of the ride was spent with idle chatter and small talk. They finally arrived at what Angela referred to as a ‘diner’ and they were sat at a booth. The place almost reminded him of the taverns he and his brother frequented in Asgard. While the taverns were dark and loud, filled with people trying to get drunk or find a companion for the night, this place was bright. The walls were a bright white. The tables too. Red accented the place.

The woman who had led them to table sat some type of paper in front of them both. He looked down at it, The Allspeak he possessed translating the words to him. He read through the menu.

"See anything you like?" Angela asked after a moment.

The urge to flirt with her was great, especially with a question like that, but Loki refrained. He had decided not to seduce her, afterall. Instead he asked her a question, "What is this pancake?"

“Oh, you’ll probably like it,” her voice was chipper, “It’s sweet. You should get it.”

He trusted her judgement. So far, she hasn’t led him astray with what she has fed him. He’s like it all. “I think I shall,” he replied.

Someone came up to the table, causing Loki to look up from the menu. It was a young woman, who was currently looking at some notepad. But the moment she looked up at Loki, her eyes widened with interest. 

She smiled coyly at him before introducing herself, “Hi, I’m Lindsey, I’ll be your server today. What can I get you to drink, sir?”

It took him a moment to process that she had completely ignored Angela. It didn’t sit quite right with him. And before her could speak, Angela quickly took over the conversation.

“We’ll both have some coffee, thanks,” Angela told the woman, far too kind in his judgement.

The waitress barely looked at Angela. She instead smiled right at Loki, “Alright, I’ll be right back with that.” And she winked at him. She had the audacity to actually bloody wink at him.

The look on his face must have been distasteful because Angela started to snicker.

“It seems you have an admirer,” she teased.

He studied Angela for a moment. Being brushed off didn’t seem to upset her. And of course, she found his distaste for the woman amusing. So naturally he teased her right back.“Of course I do, she has eyes doesn’t she?”

She rolled her eyes at him playfully. “You’re so full of yourself.”

“I’m a god darling, that comes with the description.”

Angela laughed loudly. It brought a genuine smile on his face, and he found himself chuckling along with her. A part of him wanted to see if he could make her laugh like that again. Especially after last night. It was good to see her happy, and free.

So he kept teasing her, “Are you jealous, pet?”

Her laughter died down some. “Me? After you just looked like you were offended by a mortal hitting on you? You’re kidding, right?” she asked.

“It wasn’t the fact it was a mortal, darling. It was the wrong mortal. What need do I have of her, when I’m already sitting across from a lovely and witty mortal already?”

He had thought she would laugh, but instead her cheeks warmed and she seemed flustered at his flirtatious teasing. Mayhaps he lied a bit earlier when he said he wouldn’t seduce her. But this wouldn’t be because he needed her trust. No, this is because he quite liked how lovely she looked with that blush.

However, before Angela could either respond in kind or rebuff him, Lindsay had returned to them with their cups of coffee and some creamer.

“Here you guys go! Are you ready to order?”

“Yes, could I get the strawberry crepes, with some bacon and two eggs? Please?”

The lady makes a sound of acknowledgement, before once again focusing her attention on Loki. “And you?”

“The buttermilk pancakes, that will be all,” he says in a dismissive tone.

Lindsay seems to take the hint, and scribbles down their order and leaves.

“You’re so rude,” Angela reprimands him. There wasn’t much bite to her tone though. He would know if she was truly cross with him.

“Me? The woman barely even looked at you or even spoke a word to you. I won’t tolerate you being disrespected in my presence, Angela. She wanted my favor and she can’t have it,” he defended himself.

A thoughtful look came across her visage. “Are you used to shooting down women who ‘want your favor’”? She mocked his accent in the end.

He smirked, “Women and men. I am--” he paused, then considered, “--was a Prince of Asgard. Many wanted my favor for some reason or another.”

She nodded in understanding.

“And as I said earlier, anyone with eyes admires me,” his tone had gone back to sly.

She smiled and rolled her eyes once again, forgoing indulging him in another bout of teasing. Instead, she seemed lost in her thoughts. After a moment of pondering, she looked back at him and began to speak. “So I’ve been thinking about what you said last night.”

What he said last night? “I said many things to you last night, You’ll have to be specific, darling.”

“About you helping me with my powers.”

Ah, yes. That. He leaned back and regarded her silently.

Loki may have only been around Angela for a little under two weeks, but he knew that she was a decisive woman. If she was already bringing this up, then she had made her decision. And if his intuition was right, she had decided to allow him to help. She didn’t seem the type to continue on, when she could fix something. She showed that when she didn’t leave him there to die in the middle of a ditch.

With a smile, he asked, “When do we start?”

She didn’t seem too off put by his demeanor, in fact she took it in stride. “Well, Mr. Sure-Of-Himself, I have a few questions first.”

_ ‘Good. Always question. She would be a great pupil,’  _ he thought. He gestured for her to continue.

“What all does the ‘training’ consist of? And can I get hurt?”

“Well, that all depends on what your powers are. I can do an assessment of them and we can go from there. And as your mentor, I wouldn’t allow you to harm yourself. You’re putting your trust in me, and I wouldn’t betray that.”

“Oh?” she questioned. “Kind of hard to put my trust in you when I barely know you.”

He chuckled, “Darling, you came home hurt and I took care of you. You already have put your trust in me.”

She pursed her lips, considering. “True, but I would appreciate knowing more before I commit to this. You may be my roommate, but I barely know a thing about you. Everything we’ve talked about hasn’t been anything personal. Just superficial shit. I’m trusting you with something that barely anyone knows about me.”

He considered this. On one hand, it’s everything he wanted; her trust, and an off-chance to get more information to help him with his plot against Asgard. On the other, it left a foul taste in his mouth. This seemed almost too much. He wasn’t thinking when he offered this to her last night. Didn’t think it meant this much to her. 

He still needed to do this. Odin had to pay. Thor had to pay.

So he put on his most patient and reassuring smile, “I’m honored then. What would you like to know?”

Lindsay came by, and dropped off their food before she could ask. She asks how the food looks, and when Angela responds great, she takes her leave, much to Loki’s relief.

“Have you heard of twenty questions?” Angela asks while cutting into her food.

“I have not,” he says, surveying his pancakes.

Angela notices this, and smiles. She quickly reaches over and takes his plate. “Here, you spread the butter on top of the pancakes, and pour the syrup over them,” she explains quickly.

He watches as she does so, taking in the process so he can do it himself next time.

She passes back his plate after she finishes then returns to the topic, “Anyways. Twenty questions is a little game us Midgardians play to get to know one another. I ask you a question, you answer. Then you ask me. We go until we get to twenty questions. Got it?”

“Simple enough. If I do this, you’ll allow me to train you?”

“Yep, we can even start today, if you want,” she said, then took a bite of her food.

He smiled brightly at her, “Then ask away, darling.”

She swallowed her next bite, “Favorite color?”

He raised an eyebrow at her ridiculous question.

She snickered, “We’re starting off easy, then we’ll get to the bigger stuff.”

“Very well,” he decides to indulge her. “Green. It’s my personal color on Asgard. Practically everything I owned was green.”

She digested the information he gave her, “Cool. Your turn.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll ask you the same. What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue. But like, midnight blue. How old are you?”

“A thousand and seventy years old, give or take.” He replied, nonchalantly.

Only for her to choke on her next bite. “Jesus Christ,” she sputtered when she caught her breath.

“Wrong god, darling.” Came his cheeky reply.

She sent him a glare. “I guess I forgot that you guys age differently than us.”

“And how old are you?” he asked.

“Twenty-five. My birthday is in February. So I’ll be twenty-six in seven months.”

“It’s your turn, darling.”

They continue on with her little game, both having enough sense to stay away from the ‘Why Loki Is No Longer a Prince of Asgard’ topic. Loki learned she has a mother, a step-father, and a half-brother named Caleb. He asked about her father then asked about her birth father out of his turn, and she steered the topic away. Noticing this, he relented and went back to safer topics. Such as her favorite gemstone; it was a sapphire.

By the time they reached the twentieth question, the waitress had come back and gave Loki the check. He starts to look at it, before Angela reaches over and takes it. After examining it, she starts to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Loki questions.

She points out a series of numbers to him, and the message under it. “Looks like Lindsay gave you her number. She still thinks she has a chance.” She waggles her eyebrows at him.

He scoffs, “It’s not like I would want to contact her. I don’t even have a way to do so.”

She pauses, “You’re right. I’ll have to fix that. You should be able to contact your new admirer.” There was that sly tone in her voice.

It was his time to roll his eyes at her, “Or perhaps I could be able to contact you during your working hours.”

“Or that too,” she concedes. “I’ll get you a phone today. We can head over to the mall and get you one. Damn, I feel like some sort of sugar momma. You get food, clothes, a place to sleep, and a new phone.”

His brows knit together, in confusion. “A what?”

“A sugar momma. A woman, usually older, who provides money and nice material things to someone, usually younger, and usually in payment for things like sex or arm candy. But that doesn’t work here. It was a joke. I should have realized you wouldn’t get it, so never mind.” She leaves some paper currency on the table and gathers her purse, “Let’s go, Mr. Mischief.”

He follows after her, thinking over her words. She didn’t expect anything from her kindness, this he knew, but a part of him (the part Frigga raised he knew) realized that she had done all this for him, and at most he was training her. And in the end, it would be for naught because he was about to betray her. She deserved something at least. Something in return for her kindness. And he would find it at the shopping square she was taking them to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated as always!  
Find me at lostmythoftruelove on tumblr. It's my personal blog. I'm thinking of making one specifically for my fanfiction work. lmk if I should.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Angela go shopping. And Angela's training begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the longest fanfic I've ever written. I usually quit before 10 chapters. I'm glad you guys are liking this story because I'm having fun writing it.  
Also I realized you guys on AO# don't know what the moodboard for this story looks like. Check it out at my masterlist link on my tumblr @lostmythoftruelove  
or https://lostmythoftruelove.tumblr.com/post/190686499842/masterlist this link

Person after person passed by Loki and Angela on their way into a shop inside of the large, busy shopping square. He had never seen so many Midgardians in one place. Angela wasn’t a short woman by any means, but there was the possibility of losing one another.  While glancing around and taking in the sights, he noticed many other people around them holding hands . Thinking it a clever idea, he took her hand in his. Her head snapped to look up at him, then down to their now joined hands, back to him with a questioning expression.

“Don’t want to lose you to the crowd, darling.” he leaned down to tell her.

Loki was rarely on the receiving end of a mischievous smirk, but that’s exactly what she gave him in response. She said nothing though, only nodded, and then led them into one of the many shops.

One of the people inside greeted them  promptly , and asked how she could help them.

“I need to add a line to my account,” Angela answered  easily .

The woman smiled  knowingly . “Adding your boyfriend to your plan?”

Angela took the comment in stride, showing no signs of surprise like Loki was. “Yep.” she replied.

“Alright. You guys can go pick out his phone, and I’ll be over there when you’re ready.”

Angela thanked her, and  quickly  led him over to the displays.

“So we’re together now, love?” he asked, his tone light. Amused at the situation now that his shock had worn off.

It seemed she had developed the habit of rolling her eyes at him. “You’re the one who held my hand, honey,” her tone was  just  as light and playful as his. “Usually only couples do that.”

“Yet you said nothing when I did so.” He lifted an eyebrow at her.

She heaved a sigh, “You didn’t want to get lost, it was sweet.”

He scoffed, “I’m not sweet.”

She laughed at his peeved tone. “No, only that sweet tooth of yours,” she jested. “Now come on, pick one out, we don’t have all day.” She pointed to the phones in the cases.

He glanced through them, and picked the green one. It seemed similar enough to the one Angela owned, so she would be able to teach him how to operate it.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Angela said, and headed over to where the lady from before was.

They both came over, and the woman unlocked the case and took out the phone Loki had picked out.  All of  them together, then went closer to the back of the shop.  They began to speak of somethings he couldn’t quite understand the importance of so he blocked it out and looked around the shop to occupy his time .

After a while Angela broke him out of his thoughts by handing him her purse. “Will you hold this, please?”

He took it in his hands, and couldn’t resist taking a peek inside. It was  fairly  full. She had taken her wallet out and was now searching in said wallet for her ‘card’ as she called it.  Her purse was  mostly  full of practical things; her keys to the car and house, her cosmetics, her own phone, medicine, and a pen and notepad . What shocked him was when he began to dig deeper and saw a small handgun. He looked up, catching her eyes, and she gave him a small smirk. He ceased searching inside after that.

The woman was still using her card to process the payment. Angela handed him her wallet to put back in her purse, but he looked inside the wallet as well. She had many cards inside here still, excluding the little black one she was currently using. There was also some green paper inside, which he assumed was a type of currency as well. He pulled out one of them and studied it. A hundred dollar bill, it read.

“Could you stop pulling out my money. Do you want us to get robbed?” She teased him.

He looked up, and  just  smirked at her. “I’m quite sure you could protect us, darling.” Lifting the bag in response.

She rolled her eyes at him, “I’d rather not have to though.” She waved the box with his phone inside. “Now, here’s your phone.”

He returned her bag to her, and took the phone from her. They began to walk outside the shop, and he watched as the device turned on.  They were walking in some direction, he was unsure  as to  where exactly they were heading, but he trusted Angela to know . She led them to a place where there were many seats, and then began to help him with setting up the cellphone.

“And here, let me give you my number. You’re lucky I threw out dear old Lindsey number or that would be going in too.” She laughed,  quickly  typing into the phone. Then she handed it to him again once she  was finished . “And here you go, your own phone. You can call me whenever you need me. If I’m at work only call me for emergencies though.”

“Glorious,” he drawled, examining it. Then he caught her eye and gave her a serious look. “Thank you for this,” he told her  genuinely .

She smiled. And he felt his heart skip at how pretty she looked at that moment.

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s go see what else we can get you to wear, Prince Loki.”

They went to another shop, searching for him something suitable to wear. He  mostly  stuck with suit and ties and button-down shirts and slacks.  But Angela convinced him to get some more comfortable articles of clothing, like a few t-shirts and some ‘sweatpants’ . She insisted the latter wasn’t as bad or gross as it sounded.

When they  were finished , Angela led them to the cashier. With both of their hands full of clothing, they sat it at the counter, and the man there rang it up. Angela began to search in her purse for her wallet, but Loki held up a hand to stop her.

She gazed up at him  curiously  with her brown eyes, quirking an eyebrow up in question.

Conjuring inanimate objects was simple for him.  He had learned how to long ago, and since has mastered that and had moved on to actual creatures, which was much more complicated  . It  barely  required any of his concentration, or his power.  It would be safe to do a simple conjuring spell for a wallet and a stack of those hundred dollar bills he saw in Angela’s purse  . Unlike if he  continuously  used his seidr to change his clothing every day.

With a slight movement of his hand he did so. He pulled the black wallet out of his back pocket and handed the cashier the money. The man gave Loki his change, then handed Loki the bags, and they began to leave the shop.

He cast a quick glance to Angela, and saw her fighting not to smile at his small trick. She made no comment, until they  fully  were outside of the shop. “I’m quite sure that’s illegal,” she joked.

A wide smirk spread on his face. “Are you going to have me arrested then, darling?”

She gave him a dramatic, incredulous look. “And  be arrested  for being an accessory to the fact?” she asked, “I don’t think so. Your secret is safe with me.”

He laughed at her antics. “Good, I would hate to become enemies with you.”

“No, I won’t say anything. And I’ll also try not to think about how this might affect the economy.”

They walked around for a bit before Angela saw a shop she liked, and wanted to peruse for herself. Loki was about to follow her in, when his eye caught what seemed to be a jeweler. An idea forming in his head.

For celebrations, he would always get his mother a piece of jewelry. Whether it be a necklace, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, a ring, or a broach. She enjoyed them all and made it a point to wear them at the next celebration Asgard had. A pang of longing went through his heart at the thought of his mother. He missed her. He missed her comfort, her wisdom.

Shaking it off, he made his decision. Angela was waiting for him by the front of the store, waving him to follow. He shook his head. “I’ll be right back, darling,” he told her and made way towards the jeweler.

A sapphire, he remembered her telling him earlier that that was her favorite gem. He  honestly  couldn’t remember if he’s seen Angela wear jewelry,  perhaps  she was the type of woman who didn’t.  Hopefully  this gift would pay off.

He stepped in the shop and was immediately greeted.

“Welcome, can I help you find anything?” A man behind the glass counters asked.

Loki cast a glance inside the glass case at the jewelry. “I’m looking for something with a sapphire in it.”

The man starts to move and Loki follows him. “ All of  our sapphires are over here. Are you looking for something in particular?”

Loki shakes his head, “No, I -” That’s when he sees it. A necklace. Pretty, but not  overly  ostentatious. Simple enough to  be worn  everyday, which he assumed she would appreciate. The sapphire inside  was paired  with an emerald and a few other smaller gems.

“This one.” He pointed it out. and the man pulled it from the case, and showed it to him. Loki examines it  closely  before nodding. “Yes, that will do  nicely .”

* * *

Angela watched him as he left her  quickly  and disappeared in the crowd.

Loki going off on his own was suspicious as hell. And if he wasn’t back in thirty minutes then she was going to go look for him. Having the literal God of Mischief wandering around a busy mall alone didn’t seem like the best idea. But so far he’s behaved himself, so she couldn’t  really  say anything.

She was  barely  paying attention to any of the clothes she was looking at. Her mind more preoccupied with thoughts of Loki and how he was treating lately. She thought he wouldn’t be as accepting about her nightmares like he was. Many people would pity her, or wouldn’t know where to start with helping her. Or think that she was weak.

He did none of those things. And he hadn’t even mentioned it since then.

In fact, it seemed they had far more in common than she  previously  mentioned. He had nightmares too. She wanted to know of what, but she would never ask him. It wasn’t her place. But it seemed they both felt the new bond they had. They both were similar, both broken.

And now he had taken to flirting with her. She wasn’t complaining. He was a handsome man. He was right, a person would have to be blind not to  be attracted  to him, but she wouldn’t tell him that. It would give him a bigger ego, and the man was already a god. He didn’t need a bigger ego.

But she never thought he would flirt with her. Especially after last night. But he was, and she wasn’t really sure what to do. So she flirted back. It was harmless, right? He was a literal legend, the God of Mischief and Lies. He couldn’t really be interested in a mortal with an obvious trauma and couldn’t even handle her powers correctly. It wasn’t as if she ugly. She had to use her looks many times in her spying career to get her information or in the right place at the right time, but she wasn’t a goddess. There was no way he was really interested in her. It was just a bit of fun.

Angela heard footsteps approaching her, and she turned and saw Loki coming towards her, an easy smile on his face .

She gave him a suspicious glance, “Where’d you go?”

He gave her his best charming, reassuring smile. “Don’t you worry your pretty, little head darling.”

She tried to not let it show how much she enjoyed hearing him and his wonderful accent call her darling. Instead, she shrugged and gave him a playful glare. “Committing more crimes?”

It was his turn to do the playful exasperation bit. He rolled his eyes at her, still smiling. “ Obviously . What else is there to do?”

“We could go find you some more books to read, if you're interested,” she suggested.

“I am, if you’re alright with it,” he replied.

“Yeah, I didn’t like anything in here anyways. Come on, Barnes and Noble is close by.”

* * *

It was sometime in the evening when they had finished all their shopping and finally got something else to eat  . After they ate, they made their way home to put away  all of  Loki’s new belongings. Angela sat down on the couch and began to flip through the channels waiting for Loki to finish.

She heard his footsteps approaching from the hall, and then him speaking.

“Angela?”

She turned to face him from her spot on the couch. “Yeah?”

He came to sit down next to her, closer than he usually did. She noticed that one of his hands was behind his back, shielding something from her view. “I have something for you.” He pulled out a long, velvet box from behind his back. "For you. For all the kindness you have shown me.”

It was  obviously  jewelry. He must have got it during that time when he left her in the mall. She  hesitantly  reached for it, and opened it.A beautiful necklace was inside. No one had bought her jewelry before, especially something so pretty. It must have cost a bit, not that it  really  mattered when he could conjure money out of thin air, but still. Her heartbeat picked up as she looked up at him, and saw him waiting for her response.

“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered. And she didn’t. It was nice, sweet  really  . He remembered her favorite gem, even if she had only told him a few hours before he purchased the necklace. He got something she  really  liked. He  obviously  took her taste into account because it wasn’t some big, gaudy thing he could have bought. “Thank you. This is very sweet, but you didn't have to get this for me.”

“You deserve it. No one has shown me as much kindness as you have. And I want to show my gratitude,” he responded. He had a soft smile on his face, his eyes bright.

She smiled  sweetly  at him. “A simple ‘thank you’ would have been good enough.”

“Think nothing of it, darling. It belongs to you. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on it.”

She took the necklace out of the box, and examined it further. She held it out for him to take, heart racing. “Would you help me put it on?” she asked.

He took it from her hands, finger brushing hers. At that moment she could have swore he was the God of Thunder because she felt electricity at his touch. No, electricity in the whole atmosphere. She turned to allow him to put it on her.

“Hold your hair, darling,” he whispered, his breath caressing the back of her neck, leaving gooseflesh in its wake . She lifted her hair up, giving him space to put the necklace on. His fingers brushed against the back of her neck as he fastened the necklace, and then moved them away. “There we go.”

She let her hair fall back down. And touch the front of her necklace. She gazed back at him as he looked over her. “How does it look?” she asked, voice low.

“Perfect.” There was a quality to his voice she hadn’t heard before. He was looking at her in too intimate of a way. Too close. Her thoughts began to take off in a direction they had no business going.

‘They were friends. And he was grateful. He was just naturally charming, he didn’t mean anything by it. Don’t do it.’ she reminded herself.

It was time to cut this short. “So, you said something about training me?” she asked, trying her hardest to erase the tension in the air.

The usual mischievous, smug look in his eye returned. That was better, that she could handle. Nothing like the sweet gaze from before.

“Are you ready?” he teased. He stood from his spot on the couch.

“Always,” she replied. She grabbed her keys, and they left the house.

They might need a lot of room to practice whatever Loki had in mind. Her backyard was out of question. She had neighbors and the last thing she needed was them to see that they had powers. The general public wasn’t usually that accepting of things like that. And she wanted quiet, so she could focus and learn as much as she could. It wasn’t often someone got taught by a god. She was going to make the most of this.

The place she chose was far from civilization; in the middle of the New Mexican desert.  The full moon hung high and the stars twinkled above  endlessly  , uninterrupted by any city lights . Angela stepped out of the car, and looked up, watching them in wonder.

The other car door slammed, and Loki rounded the front of the car to where she was. She began to speak, “I’ve always loved the moon and the stars, ever since I was a kid. I used to have books I would read over and over about them. I could tell you  just  about any constellation in the sky.”

He looked up to the stars along with her. “My mother is a fan of astronomy, she would study the stars often. She taught me most of what she knew.”

Not taking her eyes off the night sky she responded, “Was that all she taught you?”

“No,” his voice was getting distant. When he did speak of his past he spoke  mostly  of his mother, but she could tell it hurt him to be away from her. “She taught me how to fight. And how to wield my seidr. And now I  shall  teach you.”

She gives him her full attention. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

Loki moves to stand before her. “Now, I’m going to use my seidr to see exactly what we’re working with. Are you alright with that?”

She nods at him. “Yeah, sure. If anything you’re the thousand year pro, I’m not worried about it. I trust you.”

The serious expression on his voice turns to surprise before he schools his features  quickly . He then nods at her and with a motion of his hand, a green mist envelops her. She feels it ghost over her skin before sinking in.

“How do you feel?” he asks while his magic works, watching her  intently .

Her eyes  are closed . Feeling the chilly brush of his magic. It’s under her skin, tickling along her body. She giggles. “It’s cold. And it tingles,” she tells him.

He hums in the back of his throat in acknowledgement. “I can tell there was something that enhanced your powers at some point, but you were born with this. In fact, I’m sure this is Asgardian.” Surprise is evident in his voice.

Her eyes pop open. “Asgardian?” she questions.

He nods at her. “Yes, it’s not unheard of. We have been here long ago.”

“Yeah, with the Vikings. So I’m assuming one of my ancestors fucked an Asgardian?”

His laugh is short, but still full of amusement at her crassness. “So it would seem.”

She had Asgardian blood in her, or at least a little bit of it. If that was the case… “Would it be easier to help me? Since our powers are so similar?” she asks, eyes wide with hope.

He presses his lips together in thought, considering her question. “Well, I’d have to know what helped enhance your gifts, darling,” he answers after a moment.

Nope, nope, nope. No way, no how. First, the existence of the Tesseract  is classified  information.  Second, telling him that she had  been tortured  with the damn thing for  nearly  twelve years was out of question  . Him knowing she had nightmares was one thing, but to know why was out of question. She didn’t want his pity, she didn’t want him to treat her  differently  . She didn’t want anyone to know. And she  really  didn’t know if she could even tell anyone. It was difficult enough to relive it in her dreams. To do so in real life, she wasn’t sure she could do that.

Loki’s voice broke her out of her silence. “I can’t help you, unless you accept them.”

Her gaze snapped back at him, “Excuse me?”

He sighs. “Whatever happened, you must come to terms with it, darling. I’m assuming it’s what gave you those nightmares. These powers, they are a part of you, always have been. It makes sense that you returned in the state that you did. Your mind and the powers are at a conflict with one another. And this isn’t even taking into consideration that you are Midgardian. Your body will already have a tough time with them. It will always overwhelm you if you do not find the balance within yourself,” he explains.

She squares her jaw, resigning herself to the fact that she may never be able to control her powers. “Easier said than done, Loki,” she huffed.

“Never said it wasn’t, darling,” he replied  simply . “Now, what all have you been able to do?” he questioned, moving along.

She takes a deep breath and explains, “ Mostly  open and close wormholes. I can teleport, very short distances. It’s easier  just  to  just  get somewhere  regularly , y’know? I’m not sure what all I can do. I tend to pass out or get a damn nose bleed before I can do much. I use my powers for emergency situations only. I’m better off with my weapons, and my wit.”

“‘Tis a shame,” he muses, “because you could be  extremely  powerful. Or, you will be once you are more open to it. For now, I want you to concentrate,” he instructs as he begins circling her. “Feel it, how your power flows through your veins. I’ll bring it to the forefront, then I want you to make it appear in the palm of your hands. Even with my help, it might be difficult. But this way, you won’t harm yourself.”

His seidr engulfs her once again, wrapping around her like a cocoon. Then she feels the flicker of her own powers spark. It’s familiar, yet different. Far more delicate than she ever called them. When she uses her powers it’s like ripping them open, and slamming them shut. This feels more like  gently  waking them. She shuts her eyes and holds out her palms for Loki to see.

She pokes, pulls, pushes, and tries to coax them to gather in her palm to no avail for ten minutes.  Until Loki’s words come back to her, ‘These powers, they are a part of you, always have been.’ It was a matter of her willing them to do what she wanted  . Before long, the power pools in her grasp, and she opens her eyes with a gasp as she sees the electric blue glow. She  quickly  looks to Loki to get his approval.

He smiles. “I’m impressed, you didn’t take as long as I thought you would.”

Her hand moves under her nose to check to see if it’s currently dripping blood. When she finds none, she lets out a joyful cry.  Quickly , she shoots herself over to Loki and wraps her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

He pauses, long enough for her to register exactly what’s she’s doing, but then she hears him laugh and pats her on the back.

“Well done,” he praises her. “That’s all I’ll have you do. Get used to the feel. Tomorrow, I want you to do it yourself.”

She almost preens at his praise, but remembers herself. She backs off and gives him a breathtaking, wide smile. “Sorry, I  just  never thought I’d ever do anything without  basically  almost dying in the process.”

He shakes his head, with a fond smile on his lips. “Darling, I may have only known you for two weeks, but even I can see you would have been able to do this.”

She smiles  warmly . “Thank you, Loki.”

“Of course. Now, since we are already out here, why don’t you tell me about these constellations you learned about as a child.”

The both of them went to sit on the hood of her SUV, and she began to point out each star and constellation she knew. Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, the star Polaris, the zodiac constellations. Loki listened  keenly , enthralled by her passion.

“And - you can’t see it because it’s usually only visible during winter to spring - but the brightest star in our sky  is called  Sirius . It’s a part of the Canis Major, and called the Dog Star. But the Nordic people called it, Lokabrenna. Loki’s torch,” Angela described.

A smile spread on his face  slowly , as he looked at her. The soft look from earlier in the living room returning. They hold one another’s gaze. “Would you care to hear of Asgard’s stars?” he asks after a moment.

“I would love to,” she whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angela's necklace link so you guys can see what it looks like: https://www.capucinne.com/products/sapphire-and-emerald-necklace-cluster-necklace-6930  
Kudos and comments are appreciated!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A good day, turns bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This song is called 'Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no' after the tiktok song in my outline lol.  
A bit of a shorter chapter because the next one is going to be longer.

Loki had almost forgotten all about The Other by the time he and Angela arrived home late into the night. Almost. He had barely laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, when a faint yellow glow entered his vision, and he felt himself once again on another plane. 

There The Other stood, tall with a glowing scepter in hand.

It wouldn’t do to show, but internally, Loki was becoming tired of The Other’s nightly visits. Loki had just spent a wonderful day with Angela, and --

_ Angela.  _ Loki’s eyes widened, and heart raced at the thought of the young woman. Here he was plotting to use her, and she had done nothing to him. He couldn’t. Not to her.

_ ‘No, this will not do. I will find some other way to find the Tesseract. But first, to rid myself of this monster.’ _

Before The Other could even speak, Loki gave him a self-assured cocky smile. “You need not worry. I shall bring you the Tesseract, and you will give me my army. There is no need for this to resume every night.”

The Other paused, considering. “Then we have a deal, Asgardian?”

“Yes,” Loki replied, “we have a deal.”

“Good, do not disappoint us,” was all The Other said.

The scepter in The Other’s hand glowed, and the image faded. Loki awoke suddenly, and quickly got his bearings. The room was pitch black, so it was still night. He took a deep breath, calming himself. Now wasn’t the time to worry about his dealings. He could worry about all of this at some other time. Angela was none the wiser to him, and he still had time.

He turned over in bed, and closed his eyes, willing sleep to claim him once more.

* * *

The following day was good. The weather wasn’t the only thing warm and cheerful. Angela and Loki had spent most of the day in good spirits. Angela had slept in for the first time in years. Loki gave her a bit of ribbing over it, but nothing could ruin her mood today.

They had gone to a late afternoon movie. It was some action film that she barely paid any attention to. The real enjoyment she had at the movies came from Loki's snide commentary. It almost caused her to snort her drink out her nose at one point. Which caused Loki to laugh loudly. They were shushed after that. He got to enjoy popcorn for the first time, and her version of popcorn where she adds a handful of M&M’s to them and mixes them.

Afterwards they decided to have dinner. It wasn’t a fancy, over-the-top restaurant, but it still had great food. Angela was laughing at Loki’s impression of the main hero of the movie, when she heard her name being called.

“Angela? Oh my god, Jane come here, it’s Agent Lawrence!” That was for sure Darcy Lewis’ voice. Angela didn’t forget a voice ever.

_ Oh no. Oh fuck. Oh no. Shit. _

Panic seized all her rational thoughts. Her eyes widened in horror, and her breathing stilled. Her gaze snapped from Loki over to the brunette who was approaching quickly with Dr. Foster. They both were waving, completely oblivious to the fact that the man who tried to kill Thor was literally across from them.

_ ‘Calm down. You can handle this. For all I know Loki doesn’t know who they are, or look like. Handle it quickly,’ _ she instructed herself.

She put on her widest smile and waved back. Then she looked over to Loki. His gaze turned to them, and that’s when she realized he did, in fact, know who they were. His jaw tightened, it did that anytime the conversation took a turn and he was upset. His eyes hardened, and then turned to her. His hand that had simply been resting on the table, turned to a fist.

Oh no.

Jane and Darcy had arrived to the side of the table, and Angela still hadn’t said anything.

“What are the odds of seeing you here?” Darcy said, oblivious.

“Right?” Angela replied, taking her eyes off the very dangerous god.

“How are you feeling?” Jane asked, concern filling her eyes.

The only thing they should be concerned about is how quickly south this whole encounter could go.

“I’m fine, thank you. I’ll be back tomorrow.” Angela hoped that was all they really wanted.

“That’s good. We were worried about you. But Agent Barton said you were fine.” Jane continued.

“Yeah, he called and checked on me yesterday. But they gave me the day off just in case. But I’m just fine.” Angela hoped her disinterest would alert them to the fact that this was not a good time.

But Darcy. Lovely Darcy, nuance was never her forte. Angela liked her, but there was no changing Darcy Lewis.

Darcy looked across the table to  _ him. _ Her eyes widened, and she gave Angela the most salacious smile Angela has seen. “Just fine? If I was sitting with someone this handsome I’d be a bit better than  _ just  _ fine.”

Jane shoved Darcy with her elbow, “ _ Darcy! _ ” she chided.

“What?” Darcy asked. It was a rhetorical question because she immediately changed gears, “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

_ Fuck. _ “This is--” Angela began. Her eyes locked with Loki’s. She could see the many emotions swimming inside; panic, anger, and many others. “--Luke,” she introduced, her gaze going back to the duo. “My friend. We were catching up. Luke, these are my co-workers, Darcy Lewis, and Dr. Jane Foster.”

They both waved at him, and Angela watched as he morphed from angry to charming prince. “A pleasure,” he replied simply, a charming smile in place, but to Angela it looked more like a smiling serpent ready to strike.

Darcy smiled wider at the sound of his accent. “Oh, are you British? Because you don’t sound American.”

If he didn’t know what the difference between Britain and America was it didn’t show, because he took the question in stride like he heard it often. “Yes. Born and raised. I came here for work, and since Angela happened to be here I had hoped we could catch up.”

A plausible explanation. It was no wonder this man was The God of Lies and Mischief. It sounded natural. No thought.

Jane elbowed Darcy again, and gave her a hard stare before speaking again. “Well, it was nice to meet you Luke, we’ll let you guys get back to catching up,” she turned to Angela, “and we’ll see you tomorrow, Agent Lawrence.”

“Yeah, see you guys tomorrow.” She replied.

She watched as Jane all but pulled Darcy away from the table, the two bickering the whole way out. She didn’t hear them over the sound of her own heart in her ears though. Nor did she hear Loki ask for the check. All she knew was that Loki was pissed. And the day had been ruined in but an instant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's getting real.  
Comments and Kudos are appreciated as always.


End file.
